Gay Crawford of the American Cancer Society, who is also a parishioner at St. Andrew's, has spearheaded an effort to get cities, business establishments and other organizations to declare themselves colon cancer-free zones. When she suggested the idea to the church, officials were quick to say yes.

"It's such an easy thing to prevent the disease," said the Rev. Ernest Cockrell of St. Andrew's. He said that the church would try to educate and encourage its parishioners to schedule colonoscopies.

Cockrell said St. Andrew's Church strives to help the body as well as the spirit. "We have about 300 families in our congregation. We will be reminding people to get checked," Cockrell said.

There will be constant messages through the church newsletter and website. "We have signed pledge cards. The goal now is to say no to colon cancer," said Beverly Bennett, who is part of the health ministry at the church.

St. Andrew's is one of the first churches in the country to declare itself a colon cancer-free zone.

The city of Monte Sereno in 2003 was the first city in the country to declare itself a colon cancer-free zone, followed by Saratoga and Los Gatos in quick succession. Santa Clara County also declared itself a colon cancer-free zone in 2004.

When a city or an organization declares itself a colon cancer-free zone, it takes on a responsibility to be a conduit for information about colon cancer. Crawford said that signing up as a cancer-free zone was like signing up for a marketing campaign to educate citizens, employees or parishioners.

Crawford has a lot of ambitious plans for the future.

"It is a compelling message, because [the disease] is preventable," she said. "I have been a breast cancer survivor myself ... It is very difficult to measure success. Twenty years ago people said that they could not pay for mammograms. And now everyone does it."

Crawford said she is hoping that people will begin to feel the same way about colonoscopies. "You have got to raise awareness and the rest will fall into place," she said.

Crawford said that the American Cancer Society has targeted the community, physicians and the media to spread their message.

The society is now trying to reach out to under-served populations in the area.

"Starting at the grassroots level is the best way to do this," she said.

Crawford said the society was trying to improve on the model that they have used in the West Valley region.

"These are easier communities to work in because most people have health insurance. But we have a template and we are going to use that," she said.

Crawford said she and the society would continue to be in touch with more and more cities and physicians. She said that the cities of Chicago and Santa Rosa had shown interest in declaring themselves colon cancer-free zones. San Jose is also on her list.

She hopes that St. Andrew's Episcopal Church will not only spread the word among its own parishioners but also among other churches.