Avon Walk for Breast Cancer 2006

Erica and Pack-up Team Leader Carolyn

The Avon Walk was last weekend, and it was terrific. We had 2,500 walkers, 350 crew, and raised $5.8 million. And if that wasn't good enough, we had nice weather. The entire time. This is the seventh year I've done this event, and that's a first. It's rained the last three years, and last year was a monsoon.

I was Division Leader for the Wellness Village, aka camp or Tent City, for the third year, and I already signed up to do it again. I don't get to see much of the actual walk, but my crew makes sure everyone gets all set up with a tent, a hot meal, and plenty of water. We keep the place clean (a big job on a site with 2500 people) and secure, and make sure the walkers are taken care of. Crewing is a big job with long hours, but it's worth it.

One of the most important things that happens during the event is that people have the opportunity to tell their stories. The ways in which people are affected by breast cancer is overwhelming. Events like this one give people something to do, a way to fight this invisible enemy. When I started this event seven years ago, I didn't have anyone close to me who'd been affected, yet a few years ago, my Aunt Kathy was diagnosed with breast cancer. It's a very emotional thing for me to know that the more years I do this event, the chances are higher and higher that more people in my life will be directly affected, and is that much more reason to continue on. Then breast cancer aside, I have other very important people in my life with horrible conditions requiring chemotherapy; I've gotta think that research that goes into chemo alternatives for breast cancer will trickle into other fields of research and help those with other forms of cancer and nasty diseases where the body simply rebels against itself.

So I guess the most important reason to keep doing this is because I can.