What is the name of your company?
The American Cancer Society
Who is the SCBA representative for your company?
LeAnne McFadden, Community Manager, Relay For Life of Carroll County
What does your company do?
We provide HOPE for so many facing a cancer diagnosis today! Together with our millions of supporters, the American Cancer Society saves lives by helping people stay well and get well, by finding cures, and by fighting back. We help people take steps to prevent cancer or find it at its earliest, most treatable stage. We're available around the clock to help people through every step of their cancer experience. We fund and conduct research that helps us better understand, prevent, and find cures for cancer, and we work with lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and rally communities worldwide to join the fight.
How long has your company been in business?
The American Cancer Society was founded in 1913 by 10 doctors and 5 laypeople in New York City. It was called the American Society for the Control of Cancer (ASCC). In 1936, Marjorie G. Illig, an ASCC field representative and chair of the General Federation of Women's Clubs Committee on Public Health, proposed creating a legion of volunteers whose sole purpose was to wage war on cancer. The Women's Field Army, as this organization came to be called, was an enormous success. Its recruits donned khaki uniforms, complete with insignia of rank and achievement, and went out into the streets to raise money and educate the public.
In 1945, the ASCC was reorganized as the American Cancer Society and in 1946, philanthropist Mary Lasker and her colleagues raised more than $4 million for the Society - $1 million of which was used to establish and fund the Society's groundbreaking research program.
What is something about you/your company that you would like others to know?
As the largest non-governmental, not-for-profit funder of cancer research, ACS has spent more than $4 billion on cancer research since 1946, and played a role in nearly every cancer breakthrough in recent history. We have been able to do so with the unparalleled passion and drive of a global and local community taking up the fight every day against this disease!
4 million people across the globe participate in the more than 6,000 American Cancer Society Relay For Life
®
events held each year and our Making Strides Against Breast Cancer
®
events unite nearly 300 communities across the nation to help save lives from breast cancer. We host both events in Carroll County. Relay For Life of Freedom Area in Downtown Sykesville on June 4
th
(www.relayforlife.org/freedomMD) and Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Central Maryland in Mt. Airy on October 16
th
.
Finally, I'd like you to know we are making progress. As good stewards of donor dollars, you won't see us often "advertise." We rely heavily on our staff and local volunteers to share the mission and advances with the community. I invite you to help us take up this mission now. If you have a moment, watch "HOPE IN THE LAB," (https://youtu.be/OlTIJDCT4R0) and see firsthand the advancements being made. Then...share it, share it, share it! It takes a village!
To volunteer, your time, your talent, or to an event and our mission, contact me at 410-781-4316 or www.cancer.org/volunteer.
