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The author volunteered at the annual Heaven Can Wait 5K fundraising event for breast cancer awareness and Sara's Project at St. Charles Foundation. As a course marshal, the author directed runners at the last station and helped spectators stay out of the way. The author enjoyed meeting a cancer survivor and her survivor dog. The author felt part of a larger community supporting the cause through the event's comradery.

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21 views

Final

The author volunteered at the annual Heaven Can Wait 5K fundraising event for breast cancer awareness and Sara's Project at St. Charles Foundation. As a course marshal, the author directed runners at the last station and helped spectators stay out of the way. The author enjoyed meeting a cancer survivor and her survivor dog. The author felt part of a larger community supporting the cause through the event's comradery.

Uploaded by

api-631272802
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Service-Learning Journal: Employer Service

Heaven Can Wait | St. Charles Foundation (stcharleshealthcare.org)


Heaven Can Wait is an annual 5K fundraising event to raise awareness about breast
cancer and early detection. The event was created by Central Oregon Running Klub in 2000 after
the leader’s wife was diagnosed with breast cancer.1 The intent was to create awareness about
breast cancer and promote early detection, diagnosis, and a healthy lifestyle. The event has
turned into a major fundraising event for Sara’s Project. 1 Sara’s Project was created in honor of
Sara Fisher, a teacher, community volunteer, and women’s health advocate, who died of breast
cancer in 1992.1 Sara’s Project is a fund of the St. Charles Foundation which goes to serve
patients of the St. Charles Cancer Center diagnosed with breast cancer. I am a big supporter of
this event for many reasons: I love running, I have spent my entire career with the St. Charles
Cancer Center, and there any many patients we serve that need support. This event is something
that I have participated in several years as a runner, but this is the first year I volunteered instead.
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When signing up to volunteer we could choose which area of the event we wanted to help
with. My top choice was to be a course marshal. A course marshal is a person who stands at
certain points of the racecourse to help direct participants in the right direction. This is an
important position because you don’t want to direct participants in the wrong direction. I was
placed at the last station. This was a pivotal station because the runners passed at the start and the
finish of the race, and this was also where the public entered the event. My job was to help keep
spectators and passers by out of the way of the runners and walkers. This was a unique position
as I got to see everybody leaving and returning, as well as help answer questions of people
entering the event. During this time, I got the pleasure of meeting not only a woman who was a
cancer survivor but her dog who was also a cancer survivor.
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One thing that I really enjoy about these events is the comradery; everyone is out to
support the same thing. It takes many people in different areas to coordinate and pull off an event
as large as this as well as the participants who make the event a success. As a volunteer I was
thankful to all the participants who paid to support such a good cause, yet I was constantly being
thanked by the runners and walkers for volunteering my time. While that is not the reason I
volunteer, I just felt like a part of a larger community. I feel that sense of community even more
when I participate in running events for charity. The national anthem is sung prior to the start of
the event, breast cancer survivors are honored, music is played during the event, and everyone
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just comes together to support each other. I have participated in this event for many years and
will continue to do so in the future.
5

Reference

1. Heaven Can Wait | St. Charles Foundation. foundation.stcharleshealthcare.org. Accessed


December 11, 2023. https://foundation.stcharleshealthcare.org/heaven-can-wait

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