Honoring Race for the Cure Survivors

The 2009 SF Race for the Cure Survivor Sponsor!

One of the most meaningful moments on Race Day, the Survivor Tribute Ceremony takes place after the Race in Justin Herman Plaza. Breast cancer survivors who wish to be recognized may take part.

Also, breast cancer Survivors (who indicate they wish to be recognized as Survivors upon registering) should be sure to pick up their complimentary pink T-shirt and hat from the Survivor Booth on Race Day.

We would also like to invite participants to recognize those special people who have been touched by breast cancer. "In Memory Of" and "In Celebration Of" placards will be available the day of the Race at the Survivor Booth in the Expo area.

Survivor Race Categories and Awards

The top three finishers in the Breast Cancer Survivor Division will receive beautiful commemorative awards generously donated by Mark Harrington Crystal, in addition to the first, second and third place finishing prizes. First Place Master Survivor (age 60-64) and First Place Senior Survivor (age 65+) will also receive special commemorative awards.

2009 Tribute Honorees – October 23, 2009 Survivor Luncheon

The San Francisco Bay Area Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure® Survivor Luncheon began in 1998 as kick-off celebration for the survivors participating in our annual San Francisco Bay Area Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure®. It continues to be one of our ways to honor the perseverance of our survivors. Each year, we also present awards to three outstanding members of our community at the Westin St. Francis Hotel.  

The 12th Annual Survivor Tribute & Awards Luncheon Honorees

From Left to Right: Celia Cattani, Lei-Chun Fung, Dr. Joan Bloom

Celia Cattani, Volunteer Recognition Award 

Celia Cattani is a Global Sales Manager for Sun Microsystems and is actively involved in several organizations including the Association of Women MBAs and Zeta Tau Alpha SororityAlumni. Celia has volunteered for the San Francisco Bay Area Affiliate of Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure® Committee for 9 consecutive years as our Pledge Chair. For those of you who have brought donations to our Race – you have turned them in to Celia and the volunteers under her supervision at the Pledge tent.  As Pledge Chair, she created the system, process and paperwork used at our Race to count, track, and report every donation turned in on Race Day.  Each year she also trains the Pledge tent volunteers – sometimes they are volunteers who have never done anything remotely like the Pledge work before.  But Celia successfully works with them – and her training system is so thorough that each volunteer in her Pledge tent is able to quickly and successfully carry out his or her respective tasks.  We don’t know many people who for 9 years in a row will voluntarily get up very early on a Sunday morning; show up at our Race site before sunrise at 6am; sit in a dark 10 foot by 10 foot tent for several hours; train a group of volunteers to sit there with her and count all the cash and checks turned in and match them to the pledge forms; prepare forms for donations turned in without forms; and then sort and bundle all the donations so that our Treasurer can deposit them at our Bank by noon on Race Day.  Celia is that person.  Her work and that of her pledge volunteers is crucial in helping us properly credit our Race fundraisers and acknowledge the contributions of their donors.  During the three years that our Race was held at Crissy Field, Celia worked by flashlight and lanterns. The first year our Race was at the Embarcadero, she had to set up her own Pledge tent.  Even after those trying conditions, Celia returned to manage the Pledge area for us.  This year she also recruited members of her ZTA Alumni group to volunteer at our Race Day registration area.  For her many hours and years as a very dedicated volunteer for the Komen SF Race for the Cure; for her steadfast reliability, stellar organizational abilities, good humor and ready willingness to work with anyone assigned to her – and to do so with patience and success;  we are very pleased to present the Komen SF Volunteer Recognition Award for 2009 to  someone who exemplifies the spirit of volunteerism  – Celia Cattani. 

Dr. Joan Bloom, The Joanne Horning “You Can Make A Difference” Award 

Dr. Joan Bloom is a Professor of Health Policy and Management at the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley. She received her BS in Nursing, an MS in Community Health Nursing from the University of California, San Francisco. She also received an MA in Sociology, and Ph.D. in Sociology of Education from Stanford University. Her research interests include psychosocial interventions to encourage early diagnosis and improve the quality of lives of individuals with cancer, with a focus on young women with breast cancer. One of the most recent of her many honors and awards is the Bernard H. Fox award from the International Psycho-Oncology Society for her contributions to the field of research. Dr. Bloom is a research pioneer on quality of life issues of breast cancer survivors. She wrote the first grant proposal to study the value of support groups for this population and received one of the first federal government grants from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to study psychosocial support for young breast cancer survivors. She was also personally instrumental in establishing the Office of Survivorship at the National Cancer Institute. Dr.  Bloom is also one of the first women Professors in the field of and at the School of Public Health and is well recognized by the students as the most supportive mentors they can find at the School.  Dr. Bloom will go out of her way to help her students succeed.  Besides teaching and mentoring her students, Dr. Bloom offers many research opportunities to her students by inviting them to collaborate in her projects.  She is generous in terms of spending her time with her students and sharing her research data..  Dr. Bloom works to ensure that her own breast cancer research is culturally competent.  And, she also finds every opportunity for her students, especially students of color who have ties in their own communities, to conduct culturally appropriate research in those communities.   The Joanne Horning “You Can Make a Difference” Award is given to a member of the San Francisco Bay Area Community who through her or his efforts has made a significant, positive difference in the lives of breast cancer patients and survivors.  For her pioneering and groundbreaking research in the areas of breast cancer, the value of psycho social support for survivors, and the issues for young women with breast cancer;  for being a model mentor and exemplary professor thus ensuring the next generation of rigorously trained students and doctors in the field of Public Health,  we are honored to present our 2009 “You Can Make A Difference” Award to Dr. Joan Bloom.

Lei-Chun Fung, Hope and Inspiration Award

Lei-Chun Fung holds an MPH from University of California, LA and an MSW from San Francisco State University. She is currently a Health Educator at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, Chinatown Public Health Center. Lei-Chun is an active member of the National Asian American Network for Cancer Awareness, Research and Training (AANCART) and also a member of the San Francisco Women’s Cancer Network. For her outstanding contributions to the Chinese community, the Intercultural Cancer Council presented to her its HOPE Award. In academic circles, she is considered an authority in cancer control and has served as a consultant on numerous research projects. In the Chinese community, she is thought of as the keeper of ‘Hope’ who leads in de-stigmatizing the effect of a breast cancer diagnosis. For over 20 years she has been developing innovative education programs for monolingual Chinese women, including Breast Health Days; the first ever breast cancer support group for Chinese women in the Bay Area; “Doctor Play” - a support group for children of breast cancer patients; the adaptation of the American Cancer Society’s Look Good/Feel Better program to meet the needs of Chinese women; and the Chinese Cancer Survivors Leadership Development Program through which breast cancer survivors are trained to become legislative and community advocates. The Komen “Hope and Inspiration Award” is given to a member of the SF Bay Area community who through his or her efforts has provided hope and inspiration to breast cancer patients and survivors.  For her advocacy in and for the Chinese community; for her work establishing model breast cancer health programs including the first support groups for Chinese breast cancer survivors; and for the hope and inspiration she has provided to these survivors, we were pleased to have presented our 2009 Hope and Inspiration Award to Lei-Chun Fung.