If you have ever seen those Chris King head sets or hubs in the pink anodized hue, you might know that the reason Chris King offers that color goes a lot deeper than just having another cool ano color in the range. Yeah....much deeper than that!

The pink anodized components have represented Chris King's commitment to supporting breast cancer awareness and in particular, Susan G Komen For The Cure Foundation. Besides the great pink anodized goodness, Chris King also helps bring awareness to this disease through a special calendar. This year, the calendar features women racers from the Northwest photographed by PDX Cross. Chris King's own Chris DeStefano explains how the calendar idea came together:

It was just a few months ago in a lunch meeting with the Oregon and SW Washington affiliate for Komen for the Cure that we learned of an interesting statistic related to rates of early detection of breast cancer in our region. Joining me for that lunch was Diane Chalmers, our VP of Operations, and Cristina Moore, Development Manager for the Komen affiliate. Cristina informed us that the demographic with the lowest rate of early detection was the one we knew included the women we saw at races every weekend. Seems that the distraction of "being fit" keeps these women from regular check-ups. About that same time, the PDX Cross crew came to us with an idea for a breast cancer awareness calendar. Sometimes you just get hit over the head with a great opportunity and so we sat down with PDX Cross and looked at hundreds of their great photos to get started.

 

Chris King is selling the calendar through their website and PDX Cross will be selling them at Nationals in Bend, OR next month. DeStefano adds, " Our Pretty and Strong Special Edition component series enters its 7th year in support of the local Komen affiliate and I'd say this is one of our better efforts. "

The hope is that the calendar effort will help raise awareness amongst these fit athletes. From the Chris King website: "Our shared effort with this calendar is more than an intimate look at the joy and tenacity of the women we see racing cyclocross each weekend during the fall. It's a call to awareness for early detection because breast cancer still doesn't care how fit or fast you are on a bike. Please make an appointment to see your doctor and circle the date on one of these great calendars."

The Pretty and Strong calendar for 2010 is available on Chris King's site here It might make a great stocking stuffer for the cyclist on your list!