Meet the 2018 Paint the Park Pink Chairs
Madeline Marquette and Dawn Turner
Madeline Marquette: I have been participating with Susan G Komen Ozark Race for the Cure since 2000 with my daughter, Lauren Marquette. When Fort Smith began having the walk, Paint the Park Pink, I participated here as well. I was very glad that I was asked to help with Paint the Park Pink several years ago. I have been the chair for five years and I have worked with many wonderful committee members and sponsors. I have had many friends and co workers deal with this ugly reality of breast cancer and I have been honored to get to know so many survivors and their loved ones. I am convinced that raising awareness and money will be the Cure. Susan G Komen will find the breakthrough Cures I am sure!
Dawn Turner: I understand the importance Komen Ozark serves for our community, especially for women in need of support as they battle to survive breast cancer. On February 14, 2014, I lost one of my fabulous aunts, Pat Davis, to breast cancer. She was diagnosed in January that year and lost her battle within four weeks. I joined the Paint the Park Pink Steering Committee that fall in her honor. During my four years serving on this committee, I have made wonderful connections to our area community of survivors, which helps motivate me continue to volunteer with Komen Ozark. I have lost friends my age to breast cancer recently, and I know the pain this disease still causes in our community. There is still work needed to find a cure as well as improving methods to detect and treat patients. I love that Komen Ozark celebrates local survivors and their families. I am honored to serve as a Co-Chair on this year’s Paint the Park Pink committee to help raise valuable awareness and funds for such a tremendously-important cause. I love attending the event with my beautiful daughter Ella and mom Cathy. I feel the event allows my mom to acknowledge her sister Pat in a beneficial way. The event is a fun and celebratory event for survivors, for those we have lost, and for the hope that we will find the cure with the help of events like these.