Step into Central Park on any regular Sunday, and you’ll see the usual assortment of power walkers, bicyclists, and families. The scene in the park this past Sunday, however – October 16 – was a riot of pink: pink balloons, pink sweatshirts, pink wigs. An estimated 3,500 people in pink gathered to kick off the annual Avon Walk for Breast Cancer, a two-day, 39.3-mile event aimed at raising funds for breast cancer research and awareness.
The Walk began in New York in 2003, and has now spread to nine major U.S. cities, including Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington, D.C. In the nine years since the event’s inception, it has raised more than $380 million for breast cancer research. This year’s New York walk alone raised an estimated $8.4 million.
The Avon Walk is held as part of October’s National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, now in its 27th year. Though more effective treatments for the disease have become available in the last 20 years, breast cancer is still the leading cause of cancer deaths among females of all races, affecting about one in eight women, according to the American Cancer Society. “That’s why we still do this,” said Sara Shaw, a volunteer coordinator for the Avon Walk. “People think that because it’s gotten easier to treat breast cancer, it’s not an issue anymore. But almost a quarter of a million new cases are diagnosed each year. How is that not an issue?”
