Steppin’ Out in Pink fundraiser brings in over $440,000 for breast cancer programs at Gundersen this year

More than 4000 walkers in La Crosse helped the Gundersen Medical Foundation raise money for cancer treatment and research last month, by taking part in Steppin’ Out in Pink.

It was revealed at a Tuesday news conference that their donations from the 2024 walk raised $443,000 for local breast cancer programs.

Dr. Kristopher Lofgren, a Gundersen research scientist who studies cancer, says that funding will help his research into how cancer is affected by genes and proteins. Lofgren spoke along with fellow physician Dr. Paraic Kenny, director of the Kabara Cancer Research Institute at Gundersen, who says fund-raising helps continue experiments with new treatments.

“We’ve treated breast cancer patients with drugs that would typically only ever be seen by a lung cancer patient,” said Kenny. “These are drugs that would not be effective in 99 per cent of breast cancer patients, but when we can find that 1 per cent of patients, that needle in the haystack, it really offers the opportunity to give that patient access to an entirely different standard of care,” he said.

The $443,000 raised in September represents a $40,000 increase over the amount raised by last year’s event.

Gundersen regional president Heather Schimmers helped the hospital celebrate the fundraising success. “I never in a million years would have thought that I could join an organization that does the work that we do here,” said Schimmers. “This is not normal, this is not what other health care organizations do, and there certainly aren’t communities that rally around this kind of work.”

This was the 19th year Steppin’ Out in Pink was conducted in La Crosse, with sponsorship by Gundersen. The fundraising walk happens every year on the second Saturday of September.

The Kabara Institute will receive $100,000 from the Steppin’ Out event, with another $50,000 going to the Paula’s Purse cancer patient fund.