Zak Wood / Colorado Daily

Timolyn Esson, left, gets her make-up done by MAC employee Heather Haun, right, during the "Step Out Step Up" event held at the Twenty Ninth Street retail center Thursday afternoon. Volunteers at the event helped make 400 wellness bags for women cancer patients.

A diagnosis of cancer is no longer an automatic death sentence, but it clearly packs a powerful emotional punch – which means the recipients of the message will need a little help from their friends.

On Thursday, perhaps 100 women and a handful of men gathered at the Twenty Ninth Street (TNS) retail district in Boulder to socialize and strengthen the local support network at TNS’ first “Step Out Step Up” event.

The name for the event came from a new partnership between the national nonprofit “Step Up Women’s Network,” an organization dedicated to improving community resources for women and girls, and TNS’ parent firm The Macerich Company.

The event attendees spent part of their time in a sort of assembly line, taking various fashion and beauty items and putting together “wellness bags” for the Rocky Mountain Cancer Center (RMCC) in the Tebo Pavilion and Boulder Community Hospital (BCH).

Boulder’s women put together about 400 wellness bags, and people at 64 Macerich centers across the country joined TNS in the production of about 30,000 bags.

Suzanne Wiederrich, First Vice President of the Boulder Community Hospital Auxiliary, said the bags will go to both inpatients and outpatients, and said the emotional value of such a gesture far outweighs the financial value of any bag’s contents.

“We’re excited to help touch those women with cancer, and it brightens the day, basically,” said Wiederrich.

Cancer patients obviously require serious medical attention, but Wiederrich said the RMCC also takes an integrative approach that includes addressing the mental and emotional aspects of having cancer, as well as the importance of having a support system.

She also said the Auxiliary is a fundraising organization that takes in about $300,000 per year and distributes the money back to the community. For example, it devoted $52,000 in scholarship money this year to Boulder County students who are pursuing health-related careers.

Perhaps 20 women from the Zonta Foothills Club of Boulder County also took time Tuesday to lend a hand.

Elise Marylander, President of the Foothills branch of Zonta International, said her organization holds fundraisers, and the money will go to a variety of groups that help women and children.

For example, the Bev Hackbart Scholarship is named after a Zonta member who lost her life to cancer. Marylander said Zonta devoted $1,000 this year towards a scholarship to help pay tuition for a single parent attending CU, and said she hopes the size of the scholarship will grow in coming years.

Zonta has also supported local groups such as the Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Non-violence, Moving to End Sexual Assault, and the Carriage House/YWCA Life Skills Collaborative Project which provides transitional assistance for homeless women.

Marylander said the local Zonta chapter is planning to partner with TNS on future charities, and said both the local retail center and the broader Boulder County community have really embraced efforts to help the less fortunate.

Thursday’s event also included more than a little bit of fun. Attendees were treated to food from TNS restaurateurs, a live jazz duo provided music, a woman from lululemon.athletica performed a yoga demonstration, and Dvora Kanegis started a piece of art called “Women for Women” on-site.

Kanegis drew the faces of some of Thursday’s attendees, using a flexible substance called “gesso” and including pieces of what she called “faux jewelry.” The piece will be painted for color after the whitish gesso dries, and will eventually be put on display in the Tebo Pavilion.

Kanegis is also a breast cancer survivor, and she said she owes quite a bit to her support network.

“The women who supported me through it saved my life, basically,” said Kanegis. “I don’t know what I would have done without my female friends.”

And the founder of Step Up Women’s Network, Kaya Pupofsky Kramer, started the organization after learning that her mother had breast cancer, according to the Step Up Web site, www.SUWN.org. Kramer organized a group of women that decided to take a more proactive role in their community, and the organization today has more than 50,000 supporters.

The Step Up supporters have raised millions of dollars and donated more than 100,000 volunteer-hours towards a host of causes, and the organization has gained a sizable partner in Macerich.

“Step Up has a large Web-based membership community, and Macerich shopping centers will provide us with the physical gathering space we need to truly connect like-minded women with one another in their local communities,” said Step Up Executive Director Danielle Carrig in a press release.

FYI