Senators seek to light Arch in fight against breast cancer

ST. LOUIS -- For 39 years, the Gateway Arch has towered as homage to America's westward expansion. Having lost his mother to breast cancer, Jim Talent wants it basked in pink light as a hopeful symbol of the fight against the disease.

With Missouri Republican colleague Kit Bond, Talent this week won Senate passage of a bill that would put the 640-foot-tall landmark awash in pink floodlights in observance of October as Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

The bill awaits consideration by the House, and Talent knows time is of the essence as the month's days tick away.

"Virtually everyone you talk to has some connection to the disease," either by losing a relative or friend or by surviving it, Talent said Thursday. "There are a lot of breast cancer survivors out there," he added, calling them "heroes" in beating back a disease that claimed his mother, Marie, in 1988.

Lighting up the Arch, he said, "will also send a message that we are searching for a cure."

Talent said it's unclear whether the National Park Service -- keeper of the Arch as a federal monument -- needed legislative approval to illuminate the Arch pink to promote awareness and early testing.

"I've told them I think they can do it whether we can get the bill through or not," Talent said.

"But it makes them more comfortable if Congress authorizes it."

Talent's plan would take the observance traditionally marked by pink ribbons and fun runs to new heights, though turning the Arch aglow isn't unheard of.

The landmark has been basked during certain hours at night since crews installed in-ground, computer-controlled lights -- each one 3,000 watts, twice the power of those at Busch Stadium -- in 2001.

Talent said the idea to think pink was that of some area business leaders, including executives at St. Louis-based May Department Stores Co., operator of such regional chains as Famous-Barr, The Jones Store, Lord & Taylor and Filene's.

"Making the Gateway Arch a beacon for Breast Cancer Awareness Month will draw the St. Louis community's attention to the importance of finding a cure," said Gene Kahn, May's chairman and chief executive.

Similar efforts are taking place elsewhere. Starting Monday in Dover, Del., pink spotlights are to shine on Legislative Hall and other buildings in the state in cooperation with the American Cancer Society.

"What we're hoping is that people will ask questions," said Patricia Scarborough, the cancer society's regional vice president there.

Barbara Brenner of San Francisco-based Breast Cancer Action said annual pink ribbon campaigns might have been useful in the past, but tens of thousands of women are still dying from breast cancer every year, and hundreds more are diagnosed every day.

"This is the 20th year of Breast Cancer Awareness Month," she said. "After 20 years, isn't everybody aware of breast cancer now? Isn't it time for some action?"

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On the Net:

American Cancer Society: http://www.cancer.org

Breast Cancer Action: http://www.bcaction.org

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Associated Press writer Randall Chase in Dover, Del., contributed to this report.