Breast Cancer Awareness – Wings of Karen

At Summit Salon Academy in Tacoma, we take pride in not only providing our students with comprehensive education in the business of beauty, but also offering students the opportunity to align their careers with causes that impact their communities.

During the month of October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness month, we are pleased to highlight some amazing organizations that we have the privilege of working with.

This week, we are featuring Wings of Karen.

Wings of Karen began after its founder, Kristi Blair was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer with nodal involvement at age 35. Having lost her mother Karen Denmark to the disease only three years earlier, Kristi’s family began folding small origami cranes. In Japanese tradition, a thousand folded paper cranes are often given to a person who is seriously ill, to wish for their health.

After the family had a few dozen cranes folded, they were awed when they came home one day to find “our entire house filled with 1000 origami cranes hanging from the ceiling, lovingly made and placed there by children from our daughter’s dance studio.” Thus, the symbol was created for an enduring foundation of promise.

Two months later, still recovering from her life-saving bilateral mastectomy, lymph removal and reconstruction, Kristi began Wings of Karen, a non-profit 501(c)(3) breast cancer research foundation that pursues a cure by funding breast cancer research in the Pacific NW.

Wings of Karen was founded to bring about awareness and fund first step research. The foundation empowers patients to advocate for themselves, and provides information about studies they or their healthcare team may not be aware of.

A vaccine 5 years in the making

Wings of Karen worked closely with researchers and healthcare professionals to fund a production of a new vaccine. Dr. Mary (Nora) Disis, Director at the Cancer Vaccine Institute at University of Washington, and her team is currently working through clinical trials of a new breast cancer vaccine that would work with the body’s own response to cancer by teaching it to recognize cancer cells and produce antibodies to help fight off the illness. Kristi herself participated in the trials and says she’s eager for the next phases of the vaccine trials.

Grassroots Donations can Help Researchers in Real Time

Wings of Karen is unique in that it is a grassroots organization that strongly believes “donors should know how their hard earned dollars are turned into tangible hope.” They have set high standards to keep fundraising costs low, administration costs to a minimum, and deliver crucial funds to world-class researchers locally.

Through generous donations of all sizes, the foundation is able to stay nimble and help researchers in real time. The grassroots funding provides the important first step to clinical trials and can open the door for larger endowments. The Department of Defense has provided a grant to continue to phase 2 of clinical trials for the exciting preventative breast cancer vaccine. Kristi says she is excited at the prospect of potentially eradicating breast cancer within our lifetime.

Karen Shea says of the foundation’s unique operation: “[Wings of Karen] is a great example to show how even a small donation to a grassroots organization that funds locally can produce major results!”

If you would like to learn more or send your support to Wings of Karen, please visit their website or donation page.