Jim Boaz’s normally gray beard was pink, his head crowned with a fuzzy hat the shape, and color, of a flamingo as he walked in the annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure.
“My sister is a 30-year survivor” of breast cancer, his wife, Beth Boaz, 59, said.
“My aunt wasn’t quite as lucky,” Jim Boaz, 64, added.
The pair were among more than 30,000 people to participate in the event Sunday, which raised more than $2 million, according to Komen spokeswoman Amarilis Viera.
Besides raising money for research, the event spreads awareness of a disease that is the most common cancer in women, Beth Boaz said.
A Denny’s restaurant at 1605 Federal Blvd. charged $1 to each runner who stopped in for either a glass of water or bathroom break, the restaurant’s general manager said.
“It is being donated to the Race for the Cure,” said the woman, who wouldn’t give her name.
In 2011, the most recent year numbers are available, 220,097 women and 2,078 men in the United States were diagnosed with breast cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The disease killed 40,931 women and 443 men in the United States in 2011.
Jim and Beth Boaz joined a 22-member team to take part in the event.
Tom Lloyd, 67, another member of the team, ran the 5K race and then joined the Boazes, who walked the course at a more leisurely pace.
Sisters Chloe and Tori Klein, ages 13 and 16, respectively, were volunteers stationed near the finish line at the Pepsi Center, where they stacked boxes of apples on a table for participants.
They were among 1,000 volunteers who helped out during the event.
“I try to get out for all the fundraisers,” said Paul Opsahl, 61, another volunteer. “It’s a great cause.”
