Under a Sunday morning sky that seemed to promise rain, a crowd gathered at the Ellenville Central School campus to walk in support of a cure for breast cancer. For the third consecutive year, dozens of volunteers from the Student Council and Ellenville staff organized a 5-kilometer Cancer Walk throughout the streets of Ellenville, raising over $5,000 in contributions for breast cancer research.

In addition to the Blue Devils' efforts, local fuel provider Combined Energy Services donated $5,000 of its own in support of research efforts.

The day's events started early as volunteers arrived to prepare registration tables for participants who would be arriving to run or walk the 2.5 mile course that went through the heart of downtown Ellenville and wound its way up into the Green Acres neighborhood. The Ellenville Police Department supplied traffic control for the walkers and runners.

Prior to the walk, tables were set up in the high school gymnasium to provide information about cancer to anyone interested.

Each year, funds raised from the event are dedicated to a local resident who is a breast cancer survivor. Sadly, last year's honoree, Lee Housman, lost her battle with the disease after a 14-year struggle. After a brief speech, Bailey Smith, Student Council President, asked for a moment of silence in honor of Housman.

This year's honoree is Faith Dumond, who has been a breast cancer survivor for the last 10 years.

The American Cancer Society estimates that 240,000 women will be diagnosed with some form of breast cancer in 2007 and that 40,460 women will die from breast cancer this year; 2,030 men are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer this year with 450 of them dying by year's end.

Some 31% of all women (or 212,920 women nationwide) diagnosed with cancer this year will be diagnosed with breast cancer. Of the estimated deaths for women with cancer (40,970 women nationwide), 15% will also come from breast cancer.

Considering some of these numbers, 1 out of every 214 Americans (or 65 Wawarsing residents) will be diagnosed with some form of cancer and 1 out of 531 (or 26 Wawarsing residents) will die of some form of cancer. A 2002 estimate of the number of patients then currently diagnosed with some form of cancer was 10.1 million people.

For more information about cancer visit the American Cancer Society's website at www.cancer.org.

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