WHO WE ARE

In 2008, Julie Neal and her friend, Alecia Rice, decided to get healthy. For motivation, they planned a hiking trip to the Grand Canyon with their friend, Suzanne, a summit-climbing enthusiast. The experience proved so inspirational that they wanted to share the joy and benefits with other women, which, in turn, prompted the idea to participate in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Washington, D.C. The sixty-mile course would maintain their commitment to exercise, they reasoned, while helping to raise funds for a cure for breast cancer. The Komen race seemed especially fitting to Julie, who had lost her mother to cancer twenty-two years earlier.

To train for the Komen race, the women traveled to Colorado in August 2008 and hiked the 12,000-foot summit of Twin Sisters Peaks. Because the Komen race requires teams to enter under a name, they adopted the name Summit for the Cure, committed to the $2,200 fundraising requirement, raised the funds one donation at a time, and in October 2008 traveled to D.C. and completed the race.

Their story made the newspaper, and a reader contacted Julie requesting to join Summit for the Cure. Then, Julie’s friend, Tia, was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“Now it has a much more personal story to me than just walking for my health and other women,” recalls Julie. “The race became personal.”

The following year in 2009, Julie once again completed the Komen race, this time with a team of five, including her daughter, Taylor.

While Julie found the Komen experience rewarding, she says, “The whole time I did the walk, I kept telling the girls, wouldn’t this be amazing to do in Huntington? We have Ritter Park, Marshall Stadium, all these great places in the community that could facilitate a three-day event.”

Julie figured that in her household alone she had raised $8,000 for Susan G. Komen.

“It’s a great cause, of course,” says Julie, “but I kept thinking, what would $8,000 do in Huntington, WV? I decided I’m going to do something for our community.”

When a nurse from St. Mary’s Medical Center, who had lost a friend to breast cancer, contacted Julie to see about joining Summit for the Cure in 2010, says Julie, “I told her if I did anything, I was doing it locally, and she said, ‘well, I run a lot of 5K’s, and I’ve thought the same thing, and if you plan something, I’ll help you.’”

Julie then went back to Alecia with the idea for a 5K, and she agreed to help. Then Jennifer Brooks, a friend of Tia’s, wanted to get involved, and one connection led to the next.

“Little pieces came together,” says Julie, “until finally we all looked at each other and said, okay, we can pull this off.”

Ultimately, Julie took the idea to St. Mary’s Medical Center where she contracts as an occupational therapist. Believing in Julie’s dream of bringing this type of event to the Huntington area, the St. Mary’s Foundation agreed to do PATH to the Cure, making it one of its signature fundraising events.

The first PATH to the Cure in 2011 was a success. Every penny of the $40,000 raised stayed in the community, and Tia, who worked on the PATH to the Cure committee, made a full recovery from late stage-three breast cancer.

Each year, eighty percent of funds raised go directly into the St. Mary’s Pink Ribbon Fund and the remaining twenty percent goes to the continued development and maintenance of the Paul Ambrose Trail for Health (PATH).

“Eventually, I would love to see the 5K turn into a marathon along The Paul Ambrose Trail,” says Julie. “I’d like to see community members running down this community path through the streets of Huntington. It’s a win/win for everyone. And just think of how many women that money will serve.”