4 June 2013

With one email from Susan G. Komen to the 3 Day walkers and crew, Facebook and Twitter blew up yesterday. People were upset, people were angry, surprised, felt betrayed...and some just didn't care because they expected the delivered news sooner or later.

2013, last year for San Francisco...

Next year they're cutting half of the 3 Day events, trimming from 14 cities to 7, and San Francisco is among the cities being dropped.

I'd already decided I wasn't walking for Komen again, but I would crew and am on the sweep team again this year. But truthfully, if not for how close we are to the event--just a couple weeks away--and not hosing DKM, I would bail on it this year.

This isn't just a "oh they're betraying us" thing. I can understand the reasoning behind the cuts. Fundraising and participation last year was down 30% across the board, and this year looks to be worse. Hosting those walks is expensive, and at some point the expense benefit is gone. There's no point in having a walk in a city where money is lost.

But...Komen did this to itself. I don't care what excuses people cough up, it can all be traced back to the Planned Parenthood muckup. They lost far too many walkers because of it, and those who stayed had a hard time raising the minimum funds.

My issues with Komen are starting to run deeper. I have an online friend who works for a Komen affiliate, and the crap she and her co-workers are going through, the unreasonable demands the national organization are making on them--I can't give details without risking libel issues, but suffice to say it involves money and "reputation"--is all enough to sour me on what was a wonderful thing. I'm just done with them.

I will always support my friends who continue to walk for Komen; I understand why they do. But I think in the future my efforts will be spent on Avon.