Each October, pink ribbons unite our community, honoring the millions of lives touched by breast cancer. For upstander Kent Wellington, that care doesn’t fade when Breast Cancer Awareness Month ends. He shows up with open arms for patients, families, and survivors, offering comfort and a steady hand long after the ribbons come down.
After losing his wife, Karen, to breast cancer in 2007, Kent refused to let grief define him. Instead, he embraced the mantra Karen lived by, “turn lemons into lemonade,” and founded the Karen Wellington Foundation to carry her joyful spirit forward.
The foundation gives people living with breast cancer, and the families who love them, the chance to step away from treatment schedules and hospital visits and simply be together. Whether it’s a weekend getaway, a special outing, or a celebration that might otherwise have felt out of reach, each gift is a reminder that life is still meant to be lived and savored.
For many families, these experiences offer connection, rest, and a welcome sense of normalcy at a time when life feels like anything but normal. Through it all, Karen’s legacy lives on in every memory made, and Kent continues to show how a shift in perspective can turn heartbreak into hope for others.
In June 2026, we honored Kent at our Cohen Family Upstander Gala and Awards, where he received the Leo Wilich Award for Perspective, recognizing more than three decades of service to youth, families, and communities. The award is named for a local survivor of the Lodz ghetto and Auschwitz who kept his prison uniform for the rest of his life, putting it on during his hardest days as a reminder that he had already survived the worst and could face whatever came next.
Like Leo, Kent chose how to carry his loss. He turned it into a lifelong commitment to bringing out the best in others, and a source of joy for so many.
Do you know someone who turns hardship into hope, like Kent? Nominate them for the Upstander Award today.
