Agency Details:

Having Cancer is Hard. Finding Help shouldn't be.

The American Cancer Society is the nationwide community-based voluntary health organization dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem by preventing cancer, saving lives, and diminishing suffering from cancer, through research, education, advocacy, and service.

Description:
The American Cancer Society takes its mission to save lives seriously and therefore works to protect the resources entrusted to it by the public. An appropriately structured system of organizational governance ensures proper checks and balances, the input of appropriate experts on decision-making, and strategic oversight of comprehensive nationwide operations.
The American Cancer Society, Inc. (referred to here as the "National Society") is governed by two national groups with distinctive roles: the National Assembly and the National Board of Directors. The voting members of both are volunteers from the medical and lay communities.

History:
The American Cancer Society was founded in 1913 as the American Society for the Control of Cancer (ASCC) by 15 prominent physicians and business leaders in New York City. It was one of the most remarkable moments in the history of public health. In 1936, Marjorie G. Illig, an ASCC field representative and chair of the General Federation of Women's Clubs Committee on Public Health, made an extraordinary suggestion. She proposed creating a legion of new volunteers whose sole purpose was to wage war on cancer.Clarence Little, the ASCC's managing director at the time, wrote that "In 1935 there were 15,000 people active in cancer control throughout the United States. At the close of 1938, there were ten times that number." More than anything else, it was the Women's Field Army that moved the Society to the forefront of voluntary health organizations. In 1945, the ASCC was reorganized as the American Cancer Society.Dr. Sidney Farber, one of the Society's first research grantees, achieved the first temporary cancer remission using the drug aminopterin, thus beginning the modern day era of chemotherapy for cancer treatment.Another historical point of interest is the use of the sword as a symbol for the American Cancer Society. The sword had its origin in a nationwide poster contest in 1928 sponsored by the national society, then called American Society for the Control of Cancer, and the local division, the New York City Cancer Committee. Classically, twined serpents represent healing of the sick and creativity of the healthy. Since 1928, the American Cancer Society has used the sword as its symbol as it continues to champion the causes of cancer prevention, eliminating suffering from cancer, and saving lives.

Contact people:

Sarah Neuendorf, Volunteer Coordinator, (phone), (email) Sandy Stanley, (phone), (email)

Address:

8364 Hickman Road Suite D Clive, IA 50325 (See a map)

Web Site: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/AA/AA_5.asp

Last updated on April 3, 2009