Benton County Daily Record Sunday photograph by David Frank Dempsey Runners flowed in waves away from the starting line in the Susan G.
Komen Race for the Cure Ozark at the Pinnacle Hills Promenade in Rogers on Saturday. ROGERS – It’s easy to spot the Komen racers, especially on race day. Most of them are in pink. Their shirts almost all sport a ribbon of some sort. And they’re almost never by themselves, preferring instead to travel in as large a group as possible. And you could ask them why they’re running, but that’s not really the right question. It’s too abstract, too open-ended. They’re not thinking about the money, the charity or even really the stillundiscovered cure to which they’re contributing. Not really. Because it’s not why they’re running it’s who they’re running for. And then you realize Komen runners wear their hearts on their shirts. There are two pink signs, about the size of the racer’s number, that were attached to most of the runners Saturday morning at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. One starts with “In memory of,” a tribute to those who have died from breast cancer. The other begins “In celebration of.” It’s for the survivors, and there are more of this sign than the other, which shows a turning of the tide in the fight against breast cancer.
Tabitha Gibbs had three names on her back, her great aunt Sybil Higgins, who died, and two friends who earned survivor status whom she preferred weren’t named. Gibbs, a registered nurse at the Benton County Health Department, sees a lot of women afflicted with breast cancer. It can be draining and sometimes painful.