Making Strides on breast cancer awareness
For months, a group of Eastside High School students worked on making invitations, raising money, setting budgets, crafting decorations and eagerly counted down the days. Not for an upcoming homecoming dance, as many would assume, but for a cause they hold much nearer to their hearts.
The Eastside Striders, a student-run breast cancer awareness group at Eastside High School, dedicated the past few months to organizing a brunch for the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer initiative, which was held last week.
The group served brunch to about 75 local breast cancer survivors at the UF Health Auxiliary Conference Center on Archer Road to celebrate and honor their fight to survive.
In 2011, Raisa Alstodt, then a junior at Eastside High School, approached her Spanish teacher, María Zelaya, about starting a breast cancer awareness group. Zelaya, who had worked previously with the American Cancer Society in support of a friend’s fight against breast cancer, recognized the importance of raising awareness among her students and agreed to sponsor the club.
In a short five years, the Eastside Striders have become one of the school’s most active student organizations, according to the Eastside High School principal, Jeffry Charbonnet.
“They are leaders among our community in the fight against breast cancer,” Charbonnet said.
The organization continues to grow and today has nearly 100 active members who work throughout the year to aid in the national fight against breast cancer. Each year, the Eastside Striders coordinate multiple fundraisers and bake sales, but its main priority remains the local Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk, for which the survivor brunch is planned.
Making Strides Against Breast Cancer is an American Cancer Society initiative that encourages people across the nation to work with their communities to promote breast cancer awareness and raise funds for breast cancer research and American Cancer Society services. Making Strides’s main event is its annual non-competitive 5K (3.1 mile) walk hosted by nearly 300 communities nationwide, including Gainesville.
On Oct. 25, the Eastside Striders and other local fundraising teams will fill the streets downtown for the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Gainesville walk. Registration will open at 7:30 a.m., and the walk will begin promptly at 9:30 a.m. at the intersection of Southeast First Street and Southeast Second Place.
Jessica Clayton, a community events specialist for ACS, is in charge of this year’s walk and hopes it will be even more successful than in previous years. Last year, the 166 Gainesville fundraising teams raised $154,585. This year, the goal for the event is 175 fundraising teams and $160,000 in funds. As of Sept. 26, Making Strides of Gainesville had 101 fundraising teams, 645 participants and had raised $52,190.
Although the event also receives sponsorship dollars, Clayton credits the participating fundraising teams with 80 percent of the funds collected.
Local businesses and organizations, such as the Eastside Striders, form fundraising teams to walk each year and are vital to the success of Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. Team leaders recruit family, friends and coworkers for their team and spend the months leading up to the walk soliciting donations.
“It’s a great way for organizations to get involved in their community and to make a difference,” said Clayton.
The money raised will go to the American Cancer Society to fund research studies and support programs dedicated solely to breast cancer. The group uses the money to help local breast cancer programs, such as the Winn-Dixie Hope Lodge, which provides free lodging for patients traveling to the Gainesville area for treatments. The American Cancer Society also uses the money collected to make mammogram testing available to underprivileged women and to supply its local offices with wigs.
So far, the Eastside Striders team raised nearly $2,000 for the “Finish the Fight”-themed walk and hopes to raise more than $5,000 by Oct. 25. The team is the only student-run fundraising team participating.
Zelaya believes her students are so eager to contribute because of the personal connections many of them have to people affected by breast cancer.
Megan Mathew, president of the Eastside Striders, said she was inspired to get involved her freshmen year when a family friend was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I wanted to work so that no other woman would have to hear those words again,” Mathew said.
Mathew, 17, said her passion for the cause grows stronger as she continues into her senior year. She said, unlike other clubs, the Eastside Striders go beyond the school walls to help members of the community. The organization’s influence and success has even inspired Gainesville High School to establish a club of its own, and Zelaya said she hopes the two schools can collaborate in the future.
Charbonnet admires how passionately his students have dedicated themselves to the greater good.
“My students are empowered to eradicate breast cancer,” said Charbonnet, “and they are absolutely confident they can make that happen.”
What: American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer When: Oct. 25. Registration and check-in begins at 7:30 a.m.; walk begins at 9 a.m. Where: Downtown Gainesville. To sign up for the walk, please visit www.makingstrideswalk.org/gainesvillefl More: There is no fee to register. For more information, contact Jessica Clayton at 629-4727 or jessica.clayton@cancer.org