Municipal power supports breast cancer research with October fundraiser

Don Reid, Coldwater Daily Reporter
·2 min read

COLDWATER — Michigan South Central Power Agency members turned over a check for $4,121.41 Thursday to Jaye Sciullo, executive director of Susan G. Komen - Michigan Foundation.

Employees of member community utility departments collected funds in October in the 2023 Breast Cancer Awareness Fundraising Competition.

CBPU director Paul Jakubczak, Sam Frye from Hillsdale, Christy Ramey, Marshall assistant electric director, and Kevin Maynard, Marshall Utility director, with the check presented to Susan G. Komen - Michigan Foundation. The funds were raised by Michigan South Central Power Agency members, including Clinton.
CBPU director Paul Jakubczak, Sam Frye from Hillsdale, Christy Ramey, Marshall assistant electric director, and Kevin Maynard, Marshall Utility director, with the check presented to Susan G. Komen - Michigan Foundation. The funds were raised by Michigan South Central Power Agency members, including Clinton.

Coldwater Board of Public Utilities took the Pink Ribbon award for the most raised, topping other members from Marshall, Hillsdale, and Clinton.

Sciullo said, "These are the kinds of partnerships that Komen is constantly fostering. In Michigan, 9,000 women are going to be diagnosed with breast cancer this year with about 90 men."

The Komen Michigan executive director warned even as a Medicare expansion state that "about a third of those 9,000 women who are going to be diagnosed will not be able to afford the cost of treatment and recovery."

Sciullo said the Affordable Care Act guarantees free mammogram screening but not the follow-up diagnostic mammogram for those found with possible breast cancer. She said the average cost is about $1,500.

Jaye Sciullo, executive director of Susan G. Komen - Michigan Foundation.
Jaye Sciullo, executive director of Susan G. Komen - Michigan Foundation.

Money collected from communities, such as MSCPA members, impacts those seeking treatment to help pay bills because they cannot work and go beyond Family Medical Leave.

Sciullo said the money collected could help pay utility bills or keep up mortgage payments to prevent further disruptions of families and lives impacted by breast cancer.

Paul Jakubczak, CBPU utility director, credited his administrative assistant Nicki Luce and Abbey Hoffman, the city's community engagement coordinator, for organizing October Public Power Month.

Coldwater Board of Public Utilities staff who won the competition raised the most funds for Susan G. Komen - Michigan Foundation among Michigan South Central Power Agency members.
Coldwater Board of Public Utilities staff who won the competition raised the most funds for Susan G. Komen - Michigan Foundation among Michigan South Central Power Agency members.

"Without them we probably wouldn't have done this. We wouldn't have made it a competition," Jakubczak said. 

Employees at CBPU bought into the effort, wearing pink shirts and even pink hard hats.

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In 1980, Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan, that she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever. In 1982, that promise became the Susan G. Komen Foundation, which raised over $3.6 billion for cancer research. Deaths from breast cancer dropped by 43% since 1989.

The community utility departments plan to compete again next year.

Contact Don Reid: dReid@Gannett.com. 

This article originally appeared on Coldwater Daily Reporter: Komen cancer research MSCPA Coldwater Mashall Hillsdale