Boise Branch, U.S.A. / May 2009 - Contributor: Shigeru K Yokoyama, Branch Master

Saturday, May 9, 2009

As a Kaiso Day month activity, Boise Branch started participating in the Komen Boise Race for the Cure(R) in May, 2006. We have been participating in the event every year, and this year is our fourth annual appearance in this event as a team. The Komen Boise Race for the Cure(R) has been held every year since 1999 in Boise, Idaho, USA.

Susan G. Komen for the Cure(R) (http://komen.org) is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization which promotes the research, education, and prevention of the breast cancer. In the US, a woman has a one in eight (12%) risk of developing breast cancer in her lifetime. The prevention, education, and research for the cure of breast cancer needs to be promoted as a society and people all over the world support the effort. Susan G. Komen Boise(R) (http://komenboise.org) is the local affiliate of the world organization, and their biggest annual event is the Komen Boise Race for the Cure(R).

The Race itself has five categories: a one mile (- 1.6 km) run or walk, 5 km run or walk, and a "sleep in" preference. Each participant gets an original T-shirt. You can participate in the race as an individual or as a team. It is called "race" but it is not for deciding win or lose, ranking, etc. Main purpose is to raise funds to help others.

The Boise Branch formed a team called Shorinji Kempo Boise. All the participants of the event were encouraged to make a donation themselves and solicit others to do the same. The Shorinji Kempo Boise team had 15 participants on the day of the race. The team members were Shorinji Kempo kenshi, their family, friends, and coworkers. In addition to our race registration fee, we raised total of $430 as a donation, which was ranked #5 among the non-profit organization team category this year! The top fundraiser in our team was Russ Perkins kenshi. He raised $230 just by himself for our team! Good job Russ!

We got together at my house at 8 AM in the Saturday morning and walked to the starting area. Even though the world economy is currently in a serious turmoil, people in Boise, Idaho still responded to the event with a record number of 15,000+ participants! The starting area was filled with venders and volunteer groups handing out free information, food, and drinks. All of our team members took advantage of those free offerings.

Five of our team members actually ran 5 km this time, including myself, and the rest of the members walked. It was a nice day and was just the right temperature. We had great fun running and walking that morning. The pictures for some of our lucky ones at the finish line were posted on the local newspaper's web page. We were glad to contribute to a good cause for other people and had fun doing it.

 

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