San Antonio Flying Saucer GM Katie Cruse is walking to honor and carry on the legacy of Jennifer Rose Ghamarian — Jenn, a friend. A friend she made and got to know during her time at the San Antonio Saucer where they worked together. A friend that unfortunately and tragically lost her battle with colon cancer. A friend that left a lasting impression on Katie, the San Antonio Beerknurd community and anyone else with whom she came in contact.
Katie Cruse, along with her Team Semicolon teammates, will be walking in the Get Your Rear in Gear® 5K Run/Walk in honor of Jenn and to help raise funds for colon cancer awareness. We wanted to learn more about Jenn, the event and how we could help support the efforts, so we had some questions for Katie.
Jenn and Katie hanging out at their team’s first walk.
Tell us about the event:
The event is the Get your Rear in Gear®, a 5K walk/run to help raise money and awareness for colon cancer. It will be on March 5th at Morgan’s Wonderland in San Antonio.
Why are you participating and raising money?
I am participating because a very good friend of mine lost her battle against colon cancer in June of 2015. She was a young mother of one and a new wife. I have known her for many years — we met when she became a server for the Flying Saucer — and even though she left the Saucer just before she gave birth to her son, we remained friends. Her cancer came as a surprise to all. She was the most amazing, fun, positive person I have met and she is greatly missed every day.
I can’t really think of any one favorite story or memory, but just her presence. She was always the life of the party and always had such a positive attitude. She even was featured on the Beerknurd calendar!
I’m walking and raising money to help bring awareness to colon cancer and to celebrate Jenn with her friends and family.
Jenn’s photo picked for the Beerknurd Calendar.
Have you done this before?
I did the walk with Jenn two years ago in spring of 2015 and it was great. Even though there were hundreds of other people participating, it felt like it was just our group walking the trail, sharing stories and sharing laughs. I had to miss last year’s walk, which bummed me out, but I’m so glad I can return this year.
Team Semicolon: (From L-R) Dani, Jenn, Colleen, Mikala, Katie, Paula
How can we help?
You can make donations to our team, Team Semicolon, at our team page here. That money is put into our San Antonio community to help raise awareness and provide the screening to help this preventable disease get detected early so people have a chance to fight. If you’re in the area, you can also sign up to walk with us!
Cheers to you, Katie, and to Team Semicolon. Thank you for keeping Jenn’s memory alive and for spreading the word about this cause and colon cancer. If you have the means and the ability, please consider donating to the cause. Of course, you can always drop into the San Antonio Flying Saucer to raise a pint to Katie, Team Semicolon and to Jenn. Cheers.
