Urbandale Stylist Honored for Breast Cancer Activism

Kate Ahnen will do a lot for a buck.

She'll dress in pink and go with a group of her friends through Urbandale bars at happy hour, asking for donations. She'll tell strangers she had breast cancer.

She'll ask her friends, family, and customers to buy jewelry, to write checks, or to walk and raise money with her Cosmos Race for the Cure team. 

So perhaps it's not surprising that Ahnen, a self-employed Urbandale hairstylist and 10-year cancer survivor, has been one of the top fundraisers for the Komen Race for the Cure in Des Moines for the past few years.

She said she raises about $2,000 a year, mostly through small contributions.

"I look at it this way," Ahnen said."You are giving people the opportunity to be generous. Every dollar adds up. When we were out there doing happy hour, we had a hundred $1 dollar bills." 

At the race this Saturday, she will be honored as the 2011 Quilted Northern Soft & Strong Champion in Des Moines.

Quilted Northern is the national sponsor for Komen race volunteers. In that role, the company honors the spirit of volunteers with this award. Ahnen is the only Iowa winner.

Ahnen will be presented with a banner on stage at the race. Her story is on the company's website with those of other extraordinary volunteers. 

Ahnen no longer thinks about having cancer every day, but she does keep trying to raise more money every year. 

"I do this for the underinsured people the people who need assistance. I had insurance when I had cancer," she said. 

Ahnen, an independent stylist at in the Ash Creek shopping center in Urbandale, has been raising about half the amount of her total donation through a Silpada jewelry sale at her salon before the race.

She said all the stylists at the salon advertise the sale with their clients. Angie Sly, her friend and the Silpada jewelry representative, helps by sending emails to former customers. All profits from the sale, which has been about $1,000, are donated to Susan G. Komen For the Cure.

In fact, the sale is today from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the salon, 3225 100th St. Ahnen said if you'd like an opportunity to be generous, stop by and buy some jewelry. 

(Ahnen might even throw in a free role of toilet paper - she receives a year's supply of Quilted Northern as a Soft & Strong Champion.)