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Karen Wyckoff Rein in Sarcoma Fund
Picture Gallery of last year's Rein in Sarcoma
Picture Gallery of 2004 Event - New!
Karen
Wyckoff Rein In Sarcoma Fund
A Fund for Sarcoma Cancer Research, Education and Survivor
Support
Rein in Sarcoma
Cafesjian's
Carousel and the New Marjorie McNeely
Como Park Conservatory
Monday, July 25, 2005 - 6:00 to 9:00 pm
presented by Friends of Karen Wyckoff
Help Find a Cure, donate Now to the Karen Wyckoff Rein In Sarcoma Fund!
Volunteer for Rein In Sarcoma 2005!
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BY CYNTHIA BOYD When Karen Wyckoff got around to the idea of having a party,
her time was already running out. She was losing the battle against
sarcoma, a rare and aggressive cancer.
Today, family, friends and hundreds more who didn't know Karen
will come together at the Rein in Sarcoma benefit to ride Cafesjian's
Carousel, tour the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory at Como Park,
enjoy music and donate to the Karen Wyckoff Sarcoma Research Fund. "It's raising a lot of money, but it's also raising awareness''
of the malignancy that occurs in connective tissues, said Kate
Ostrem, assistant director of development for the cancer center.
Ostrem said the event has become a forum for a "community
of folks who are dealing with sarcoma, or families who have lost
people to sarcoma.'' "It's like a great big network that keeps getting bigger,''
said Ruth Sorenson-Prokosch of St. Paul, one of a tight-knit group
of Karen's friends who, with her parents, Sue and Pete Wyckoff
of Shoreview, help keep the benefit going. People come for a good
time, Sorenson-Prokosch said. Among the supporters is Juli Evers. She lost her 20-year-old daughter, Sarah, a 2000 Fridley High School graduate who loved children, to sarcoma last October. Evers, who now lives in Albany, Minn., 20 miles northwest of St. Cloud, said the event helps get the word out about a little-known cancer and "helps people be more aware of how precious everyone's existence is." Soft-tissue cancers, which are mostly sarcomas, are rare, occurring each year in Minnesota in about 3.3 men per 100,000 and in about 2.5 women per 100,000, according to Sally Bushhouse, director of the state's cancer registry. National numbers are similar. Put another way, that means 130 people a year are diagnosed with a soft-tissue cancer among 21,000 cancer diagnoses in Minnesota.
Her parents say Karen probably should have been in a hospital
bed rather than on a merry-go-round that July evening two years
ago, but she wouldn't consider the idea. The idea for the party and the carousel were Karen's "vision,"
said Abby Boehm of St. Paul, a friend from middle-school days.
Boehm's father, who is president of the nonprofit group that controls
Cafesjian's Carousel, helped make the group's use of the merry-go-round
possible. Karen had said that everybody else did walks, runs or
bike rides to raise money, but no one did carousels. Friends and family describe her as someone who took the lemons
of life and made lemonade. A 1994 graduate of Roseville Area High School, Karen was a National
Merit Scholar semifinalist who grew up in Falcon Heights and Shoreview
playing sports, cross-country skiing and learning piano and violin.
She raised money to fight hunger and multiple sclerosis and coached
soccer for children. Karen was journeying toward death and she knew it, Sue Wyckoff
said, but she spent her life trying to change the world, right
up to the end. With Karen it wasn't, "This is unfair,"
her mother said. It was, "What can I do for someone else?" When she appeared to be in remission, Karen joined the Lutheran
Volunteer Corps for a year to work for Legal Aid in north Minneapolis.
She had started work on a master's degree in public health when
the cancer returned, four years after diagnosis.
IF YOU GO Cynthia Boyd covers Arden Hills, Falcon Heights, Lauderdale,
Mounds View, New Brighton and Shoreview. She can be reached at
cboyd@pioneerpress.com or 651-228-2116.
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