The Avon Walk series last year - held nationwide in nine U.S. cities - was the most successful in the event's history, having raised more than $56 million in donations!
Local beneficiaries of the 2008 Avon Walk for Breast Cancer Charlotte include:
*North Carolina Baptist Hospital (Winston-Salem, NC) received $375,000 to support a community outreach and patient navigation services program that expands the Avon Foundation safety net to Winston-Salem. Navigators will work to reduce disparities in breast care among the African-American community by expanding the current program to include more patients from the surrounding rural counties.
*Presbyterian Hospital (Charlotte, NC) received $300,000 to support its community outreach and patient navigation program to improve access to screening, diagnostics, and treatment to underserved populations in underserved populations in Charlotte, NC, Mecklenburg County and eleven surrounding counties.
*Carolinas Medical Center (Charlotte, NC) received $275,000 to support the Mecklenburg County Breast Care Management program that provides outreach and patient navigation services to medically underserved women in Charlotte. The staff coordinated screening and care through the Carolinas Hospital, the Blumenthal Cancer Center, and the Myers Park Clinic.
*Health Research Alliance (Research Triangle Park, NC) received $95,000 to support the development of a web-based grants database that will contain pooled grant information of nonprofit agencies. This award is a key outcome of the Avon-led collaboration between Avon and other foundations.
Funds raised by the Avon Walk Charlotte also support national programs:
*Avon Foundation Breast Care Fund was awarded $7,000,000 to be disbursed as grants to 145 non-profit Community Based Organizations across the country - with at least one in every state - for education and outreach programs. These programs will collectively navigate 150,000 women next year into mammography screening and will educate 500,000 others on breast health and the importance of early detection.
*Cancer Care (New York, NY) was awarded $1,500,000 to continue AvonCares - a financial assistance program that provides cash for low-income women facing breast cancer. The cash assistance can be used to pay for gas to get to a doctors appointment, or for child care or elder care. The program which launched in 2000, has already assisted 39,000 women who have received approximately $250 each, for a total of $9,750,000.
*Love/Avon Army of Women was created with a $1,200,000 award to recruit 1-million women around the country to participate in studies to understand the causes of breast cancer and how to prevent the disease. All women should learn more by visiting www.armyofwomen.org.
We hope you found this info as inspiring as we did!
