Once word - and strong opinions - spread last week about the Susan G. Komen foundation nearly cutting funding for Planned Parenthood, Coeur d'Alene Race for the Cure volunteer Cara Kendrick stopped wearing the pink apparel she pulls on nearly every day, accumulated from years of events.

Not because she stopped believing in the breast cancer organization, she said.

"I just didn't want to deal with people asking me questions," said Kendrick, who has raised more than $100,000 for the organization's efforts with her team at three-day, 60-mile walk events. "It was hard. Almost everything I have is pink."

But on Monday, she was back in her customary color, with the ribbon brandished for all to see.

What are politics and rumors, she said, compared to tangible dollars that have been raised to quell the effects of a broad-reaching disease?

"What I've come back to every time is I still believe in the basis of what the Komen organization was based on and what their promise is," Kendrick said. "And that is to find a cure for breast cancer, because everybody deserves a lifetime."

There are reports across the country of volunteers disassociating with the Susan G. Komen foundation after last week's chain of events.

According to an Associated Press story, the nonprofit had adopted criteria on Tuesday excluding Planned Parenthood from breast screening grants, of which it received $680,000 in 2011, due to an investigation of the entity launched over the urging of anti-abortion groups.

But when the news garnered widespread outcry, the national organization quickly reversed its decision. The actions have stirred conflicted feelings among many toward the organization, the Associated Press story stated, with folks suspecting political motivations.

Gail Turley, board president for the Coeur d'Alene Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, said that while she's aware of the backlash elsewhere, she hasn't fielded overwhelming concerns in Kootenai County.

"I've had a few questions directed to me, but not a whole lot," Turley said, adding that she responds to emails by explaining the situation and the organization's stance.

Turley hasn't heard reactions from local volunteers, she said.

"I'm just most concerned about how it affects our local affiliates and funding source," she said, adding that there are no signs yet that local support for the breast cancer fundraiser will drop. "I'm always concerned about that."

Coeur d'Alene Race for the Cure has funded more than $1 million in grants in North Idaho, Turley said, which have gone toward programs like cancer screenings for low-income and uninsured women, and food and gas vouchers for breast cancer patients. Twenty-five percent of raised funds go toward national breast cancer research.

Susan G. Komen affiliates in North Idaho have not funded grants for Planned Parenthood, Turley said. She emphasized that affiliates do fund breast-cancer screenings, not abortions.

"I think people assume that is all that Planned Parenthood does," Turley said of the reproductive health care provider, which also provides birth control, sex education and exams and screenings for general health care. "That's probably what's behind the controversy."

Additional Race for the Cure volunteers could not be reached or declined to comment.

Kendrick said she has been participating in Susan G. Komen fundraisers for four years, since her sister, Tiffany Myers in Colorado, was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Sweating in Race for the Cure and the three-day walk make her feel that much less helpless about Myers' health, she said.

"If I can't be there for every treatment and every surgery, if I'm raising awareness and raising funds, then I'm doing something that in turn helps her in the long run," said Kendrick, also fundraising and special events coordinator for the Coeur d'Alene Race for the Cure.

Her faith in Susan G. Komen is unshaken, she said, because her gaze is fixed on the bigger picture: That the organization's research funding could save her sister and so many others.

"I'm sure that many treatments she's had and medications she's taken to keep her alive for the past four and a half years are partially attributed to Komen grants and Komen research money," Kendrick said. "Even when all this has been going on, I didn't ever not believe wholeheartedly in what the Komen foundation does."