Cowboys for Cancer Research (C4CR), a Dona Ana County-based nonprofit dedicated to raising money to support cancer research projects in New Mexico, added a new dimension to its strong relationship with NMSU in the spring of 2011. The organization announced an endowment pledge of $1.5 million dollars over seven years to be established at the NMSU Foundation to support additional cancer research at NMSU.

This fund is in addition to the $1.6 million endowment at the University of New Mexico Cancer Center started in 1999. The new endowment is an outgrowth of the extremely successful partnership between C4CR and the NMSU Aggies Are Tough Enough to Wear Pink campaign, which began in 2007.

In 1982, a benefit team-roping event was held to honor the memory of Alma Cohorn, who had died the year before from breast cancer. The $700 raised at the event was given to the UNM Cancer Center to use where it was most needed. It has since become an annual event and the sponsoring group evolved into C4CR. The 2011 C4CR Team Roping/Dinner Dance will be held Oct. 7-9. From the beginning, earnings from the UNMCC endowment funded projects that supported research conducted by the UNM Cancer Center and New Mexico State.

Jeffrey Arterburn, a chemistry and biochemistry professor at NMSU, and Eric Prossnitz, lead researcher at the UNM Cancer Center, have been collaborating for a decade on research funded through the UNM Cancer Center’s Alma Cohorn/C4CR endowment. Their efforts are yielding promising therapies for the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.

The “Tough Enough to Wear Pink” breast cancer fundraising initiative has its roots in rodeo across the country. When the NMSU Aggie “team” was formed in 2007, it included members of the NMSU family as well as the greater community of Las Cruces. It continues to have this representation and is one of the best reflections of “town and gown” cooperation in the region. The group quickly aligned itself with C4CR, operating under their nonprofit status.

This partnership has created the most successful Tough Enough to Wear Pink fundraising event in the world each of the last three years. The 2011 NMSU Aggie “Pink” campaign will again take place in October.

“So many of our board members are Aggie alumni and the support from the NMSU Aggie ‘Pink Team’ has been so amazing that creating the second endowment just made sense,” says long-time C4CR member Denny Calhoun. “We are so proud of all we have been able to do to support important cancer research that will benefit all of New Mexico. We thank everyone who has participated in some way. We still have a lot of work to do to reach our goal of finding a cure for this terrible disease, which affects so many of our friends and families.”