More than six hundred people gathered on a rainy Sunday morning at the Detroit Zoological Institute. They were not deterred by the predicted forecast or by the early morning drive on a Sunday. They brought umbrellas, ponchos and make shift rain protectors along with friend sand families to participate in “NAAMA’s Walk for Women Cancer”.
Organized by the Michigan Chapter; NAAMA’s Walk for Women’s Cancer, benefiting the Karmanos Cancer Institute aimed to raise public support and awareness of women’s cancer. Cancer survivors, their families and friends, the medical and business communities and the general public from all walks of life came together on Sunday 29, August, 2004 to celebrate lives saved and the memories of lives lost to the battle of cancer. Walkers and their families marched along the one-mile rainy trails of the Detroit zoo, enjoying the seven musical acts performing along the way and watching the clowns that brought smiles to faces of dripping wet children. 
The event was meant to be the first of its kind to target women’s cancers in general in Michigan. The aim was to increase public awareness and understanding of these cancers.
With The hope that NAAMA’s Walk for Women’s Cancer will become an annual event; the Michigan chapter took the initiative to promote and organize this event collaborating and coordinating with the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute. Based in midtown Detroit, the institute is among the nation’s best cancer centers and is one of 38 National Cancer Institute’s designated centers in the United States.
The success of the walk was the fruit of a tremendous team effort by the Michigan chapter board of directors and the event steering committee led by Dr. Rouba Ali Fehmi.
This event marks a major corner stone in the direction the Michigan chapter is heading in taking NAAMA beyond the Arab American Community and into the main stream.
In 2005, members of NAAMA MIchigan presented a check representing proceeds from the group’s first annual Walk for Women’s Cancer to John C. Ruckdeschel,  M.D., president and CEO of the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute. More than 600 hundred people gathered at the Detroit Zoological Institute on August 29, 2004 to participate in a one-mile noncompetitive walk and to raise funds and awareness of women’s cancers. NAAMA’s $10,000 donation will support the health education and awareness programs of the Institute.
Learn more about NAAMA's Walk for Women's Cancer |
