Limited Brands Builds World’s Largest Team in Komen Race for the Cure History

May 12, 2011

Team Limited Brands enlists record-breaking 7,271 participants for the 19th-annual Komen Columbus Race For the Cure

(COLUMBUS) – As the Komen Columbus Race for the Cure approaches, one spirited team devoted to the step-by-step cause of ending breast cancer has already made headlines.

Team Limited Brands, in its 11th year of participation in the 19th-annual Komen Columbus Race for the Cure, has enlisted a record-breaking 7,271 associates and guests to participate in the emotional event, which will begin at 8 a.m. on May 14 in downtown Columbus.

Les Wexner, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Limited Brands, said, “We are proud to be named the largest team in Komen history. When we come together as a community, we’re able to have a substantial impact … a substantial impact that takes us one step closer to finding a cure.”

Since 2000, more than 26,000 associates in the company’s offices in Columbus and Kettering, Ohio; New York City; and Rio Rancho, N.M., have participated in Limited Brands’ Think Pink program supporting the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.

In that time, Limited Brands Foundation has donated more than $920,000 to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and the American Cancer Society to fund breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment. As a Platinum Level sponsor, the company will contribute an additional $238,000 in 2011.

“We are very proud that one of our local corporations has set the bar so high for breast cancer awareness, not only for central Ohio, but for the world,” said Katie Carter, the executive director of the Columbus Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.  “Limited Brands has been an amazing corporate partner and continues to set the benchmark year after year for corporate giving and philanthropy.”

As Team Limited Brands’ landmark group effort illustrates, team participation is crucial to the continued success of the Komen Columbus Race for the Cure in central Ohio and throughout the United States. Every year, teams of 10 or more walkers and runners comprise the foundation of the more than 100 Race For the Cure events in 122 cities in the United States, Puerto Rico, Germany, and Italy.

This year, nearly 32,000 --more than half of this year’s anticipated field of 52,000 --will be part of 1,064 teams running and walking to celebrate breast cancer survival and honor friends and loved ones who lost their battles to a disease that claims a life every 69 seconds.

Up to 75 percent of the funds raised at the Komen Columbus Race For the Cure always remain in a 30-county service area. The money provides breast health screening, treatment, services, and education for uninsured or underinsured women. The remaining 25 percent goes to fund national research to discover the causes of breast cancer and, ultimately, its cures.

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