Community teams up to fight cancer

One of the first days of fall marked an energetic Saturday at Memorial Stadium, and it wasn’t because of a football game.

At 10:20 a.m., students, community members and out-of-state participants gathered at a starting line to race past a cheering crowd.

Both walkers and runners of the 2011 Hoosiers Outrun Cancer weren’t just outrunning cancer — they were racing toward its cure.

The 12th-annual event raised money for the Olcott Center for Cancer Education in Bloomington, which provides annual skin cancer screenings, cancer education programs for students, support groups and more for people affected by cancer.

As of Saturday, the event raised about $1.6 million for the community since its inception, said Julie Curtis, chairwoman of the committee for Hoosiers Outrun Cancer.

“We have 147 different teams this year,” said Curtis, who is also a board member for the Bloomington Hospital Foundation. “We are expecting about $190,000 to go right back to the Olcott Center here.”

Although Curtis estimated there were as many participants last year as this year’s event, which included a kids one-mile run in addition to a 5K run and walk, the amount of money raised is about $10,000 more than last year, she said.

“I think the race meets a lot of different points of interest for the people,” Curtis said.

“There are actual cancer survivors and their families, people that work in health care, people that are friends and family of cancer survivors and people that work within the
Olcott Center.”

Hoosiers Outrun Cancer included teams from Bloomington High School North as well as families raising money in honor of a deceased family member or a family member who has survived cancer.

Members of Team Ava donned bright pink, tie dyed T-shirts in honor of Tami
Anderson’s four-year-old daughter who survived a kidney tumor that was found in July of 2010.

“I feel like God gave us this to get me in a place to help other parents that have a child who is diagnosed with some sort of cancer so that maybe I can help them get through it,” said Anderson, a Bloomington resident.

Anderson and her 22-member team are also involved in “anything that has to do with cancer research, cancer support,” including the Make-A-Wish Foundation, which sent Anderson’s daughter to Disney in May.

“It’s been an emotional roller coaster for our family in many ways,” Anderson said. “But now I am starting to see the good in the end.”

While Hoosiers Outrun Cancer had several teams of family members, including Team Jenny, the largest community team for the event, “Kelley Runs for Walt” is made up of graduate students from the Graduate Entrepreneurial Club at the Kelley School of Business.


This is the fourth year they have won for largest team at IU.
In 2007, accounting Professor Walter G. Blacconiere died of pancreatic cancer. “Kelley Runs for Walt” raised $700 for a college fund that goes to Blacconiere’s three kids.

“It’s been a great experience putting this together, and it feels really good to help out a family and a professor who is still remembered today at the Kelley School,” said Jason Fletchall, president of the entrepreneurial club.

But Kelley students honor Blacconiere’s memory in other ways.

Blacconiere began a tradition for students to clap at the end of every class session within Kelley “to show they appreciate the knowledge that they’ve gained during class,” Fletchall said.

“We still carry that tradition today since he’s passed away,” said Fletchall. “His memory’s there every day, every day in class.”