MAPLE GROVE, Minn. — The 2019 Susan G. Komen Twin Cities Race for the Cure is expected to draw up to 30,000 runners and walkers to the Southdale Center in Edina this Sunday.
Before the big race, students and staff at Fernbrook Elementary school took to the track to do some fundraising of their own.
The school makes breast cancer awareness its yearly service project
Since 2001, the school has collected money and pledges, and the students do their own mini “walk for the cure.”
Everyone has the goal of raising money and awareness for breast cancer research – but why each person is participating is very personal.
Some of the students have lost parents to cancer. Cathy Seeman, a 5th grade teacher, is a 10-year cancer survivor herself.
"You can hardly walk through a building and not find people affected by cancer," said Fernbrook Principal Jeff Zastrow, a.k.a. Mr. Z.
"When you can rally around a cause like this... when you see this kind of a community get together and walk out here, and raise money and bring in money at the last second to increase the total, it speaks to hope," he says.
Just this year, the students and faculty raised $18,224.28 for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. The effort raises the school’s grand total to $185,903.10