Our daughter Joanna works for Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Komen is a beneficiary of the Breast Cancer 3-Day, the annual 60-mile walk that honors lives lost, celebrates survivors, and promotes breast cancer research. Last year's event started at Texas Stadium and took walkers through Irving, Grand Prairie and Arlington to the Fort Worth Stockyards.
Jo and her husband Trey were working with a pit crew for the event, and Jo asked if I'd like to help. Already that month I'd worked a fundraiser golf tournament and a community garage sale, so I hesitated. But this was my daughter, and the cause was a good one. My friend Dianne agreed to join us. So that Saturday in October, we headed to Randol Mill Park in Arlington for a three-hour shift at Pit Stop No. 4.
The pit stops give walkers a chance to go to the restroom, have a snack, and get hydrated. Our stop was the last break of the day. It served as a cheering point, where friends and family members waited to offer encouragement. I spoke with one older woman waiting to see her niece. She was crying even before spotting her: "I'm just so proud of her!"
Volunteers and supporters waited at each corner with balloons and signs. As each group of walkers appeared, the volunteers clapped and cheered and squirted them with water pistols to cool them off. After helpers arrived to relieve us, Dianne and I joined the cheering squad on the corner. We were having such a good time that we worked longer than scheduled.
Learning that the pit crew could use help again on Sunday, this time I didn't hesitate. I arrived at 9:30 a.m. to help set up the snack tent. We were located by a stretch of walking trail along the Trinity River. It was a peaceful place, and we visited with several horseback riders as we waited for the walkers to arrive.
Pit Stop No. 4 was only 1.7 miles from the end of the journey. As the first walkers arrived at our stop, some were so anxious to finish that they barely paused for a restroom break or water refill. More walkers arrived, in trickles and then in droves. Some were exhausted and needed to rest before continuing. Many, tired as they were, were just not quite ready for it to be over. These were women and men who had walked togeter, eaten together and camped together for a concentrated period of time. They were there because their lives had been touched in one way or another by breast cancer. Maybe they'd battled it personally, maybe they'd watched a loved one fight it. Some of them had trained for months, some of them were not in good shape. But they were alike in the desire to beat an enemy that still claims too many lives. I looked at the walkers, tired, sweaty, completely unconcerned with the trivialities of makeup or hair, and I could hardly imagine a more beautiful group of people.
I wound up staying until 3:30 p.m., and sat down only once. When I got home I was exhausted, and my feet were killing me. But I figured if more than 2,000 people could walk for three days, I could stand for six hours.
Would I do it again? Absolutely.
(DeSoto Today 10-04-07)
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