Thousands of people turned out for the walk to promote breast cancer awareness and to provide hope and help to people facing the disease.

The Sunday walk was the second annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk, held at White Memorial Conservation Center. The event was intended to help raise money for breast cancer research, education and patient service programs in Connecticut. Organizers said they hoped to raise more than $85,000 from the Litchfield walk alone.

Making Strides Against Breast Cancer is described as a noncompetitive walk to help fight breast cancer and provide hope to people facing the disease.

The event is the American Cancer Society’s premier event to raise awareness and funds to fight breast cancer. Litchfield County’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk is one of four walks in Connecticut and 140 held across the country. Walks were held Sunday in Hartford, New Haven and Westport.

Participants pledged for simple steps like making healthy choices every day: be physically active, eat a healthy diet, stop smoking and encourage others to do so.

Studies have shown that weight, weight gain and the level of physical activity one gets are associated with breast cancer risk. Besides breast cancer, smoking is linked to many other types of cancer. One of the goals of the event is helping the society to seek better ways to prevent, detect, and treat breast cancer.

Breast cancer kills about 45,000 women each year in the United States, including 480 Connecticut residents.