Making Strides – Breast cancer event hopes to draw more than 500 people on Sunday

Moving and grooving together to warm up prior to the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk from Opechee Park in Laconia 2013. Karen Bobotas/for the Laconia Daily Sun

LACONIA — The Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walks were first held in 1993, with events in Boston and Manchester. They soon spread to towns throughout the country, including Laconia, which will be hosting the Making Strides of Greater Lakes event on Sunday, Oct. 16, beginning at 10 a.m. The walk will set out from Opechee Park, and participants can choose to follow either a 3- or 5-mile route.

Chelsea Paradore, community manager for the American Cancer Society, is helping to organize the Laconia walk, as well as three other of the nine Making Strides events being held in New Hampshire this year. She said that there were about 500 people who walked in Laconia last year, and that she hopes to see yet more participate this year. The events raise funds for the American Cancer Society, which will use the funds to promote early detection, support patients undergoing treatment, fund medical research and lobby for legislative action.

The walk, said Paradore, is also about raising awareness and showing support, so she encouraged everyone to participate, whether they have signed up already or not, and whether or not they have raised or can make a contribution.

"A lot of people register the day of (the event)," she said. Walkers can sign up via main.acsevents.org, or they can register in person prior to the walk.

"There's no fundraising minimum or registration fee," she added. "We invite people to come walk with us, whether they raise funds or not."

This will be the second year that Paradore has helped put on the Laconia walk. Last year, the event featured a celebration of survivors, and that will again be part of the proceedings.

"That was really meaningful and touching," she said, adding that it served as a reminder to everyone as to why the event is held.

New for this year will be the inclusion of Pokemon Go! activities along the walk, to entertain the younger walkers, or just the young-at-heart. Paradore said there will also be a "pink-out tent," offering pink hairspray, pink ribbon tattoos, and other adornments carrying the event's signature color. Paradore said that it's her goal to add something novel each year, so that even perennial walkers will have something new to look forward to.

"We're trying to really modernize and update the event," she said. "I'm really excited to grow the event, make it larger each year."

Annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk from Opechee Park in Laconia from 2013. Karen Bobotas/for the Laconia Daily Sun