ShawneeDispatch.com

More than 1,000 walkers will converge on the Kansas City-metro area Friday. The Susan B. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day will start out at the Kansas Speedway on Friday morning, making a roughly 20-mile loop before heading back to a campsite set up for the participants. The next day they'll make a similar loop, and Sunday they'll walk to the Liberty Memorial in Kansas City, Mo., for the closing ceremony.

Nancy Mercurio, who is spokesman for the event, said, "In a perfect world, people would just give money for breast cancer ... we wouldn't have to put on a three-day event."

That event this year will include a 250-volunteer crew, attracting more than 1,200 participants. Mercurio said she didn't have figures for the money raised so far this year, but last year's event, with about 900 participants, raised $2.4 million, she said.

Mercurio said she couldn't give out the walk's planned route because the organizers didn't want family members of participants trailing the walkers in their vehicles, and because the route might change at the last minute and upset some people. There is also the issue of security.

Nevertheless, the walkers are expected to pass through Shawnee on Friday. Signs along the northbound lanes of Kansas Highway 7 inform motorists that the northbound access ramps to the highway will be closed from 47th Street to Kansas Avenue in Bonner Springs 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday. Organizers have established a cheering station from 11:30 a.m to 4 p.m. Friday at milepoint 14.9 in the Mid-America Sports Complex at 20000 Johnson Dr., along the Mill Creek Streamway Park Trail at the back of the softball fields.

Mercurio said the event accomplished good besides the money it raises.

"The thing about this walk ... it's such a bold statement, because it allows participants to do something big," Mercurio said.

It takes a minimum of $2,200, collected up front, to participate in the walk. Mercurio said participants were often creative in their methods of raising cash, from cheese-and-wine parties to garage sales, she said.

Mercurio said participants in the walk last year raised an average of $2,900 each.

It's not just the fund-raising that requires the walkers' serious efforts for the race. "They've made a commitment to prepare" walking the event's average of 20 miles each day, Mercurio said.

In addition to helping spread the word and making a statement about their commitment to helping fight breast cancer, Mercurio said the event has other benefits for participants.

At at the end of each day, she said, the walk "allows them to feel they've done something physically challenging and also taps them into a wonderful community of people," including many women who have been affected by breast cancer personally.

On Sunday there will be a closing ceremony at Liberty Memorial that will be a celebration for the participants and their families, Mercurio said.