being_fulfilled

Wow, this week has really gotten away from me! I had every intention of getting this up earlier, but better late than never, right (besides, it's still been less than a week, so I think I'm okay)?

Once again, we did it! Mom, Colin, and I raised over $9300 for the Alberta Cancer Foundation, beating last year's personal totals by nearly $1000. The Weekend as a whole had 1400 participants and raised $4 million, bringing the four-year total (thus far; Edmonton's walk is next weekend and will add to the total) from the Weekend to End Breast Cancer in Alberta to over $21 million. It's a far cry from the annual $300,000 budget that was in place before the Weekend started!

More specifically, since the inception of the Weekend to End Breast Cancer, the Alberta Cancer Foundation has been able to fund over 30 new research projects, including a full-time position for a chair of breast cancer research; provide new digital mammography units for screenings in rural areas; provide funds for drugs not covered under Alberta Health Care; provide better patient and family support; launch an annual conference to bring the community together and give answers and support; and many other initiatives that not only benefit cancer patients in Alberta but take huge strides forward in the treatment and knowledge of the disease worldwide.

In some ways, this year was more difficult than last year--the fundraising went much more slowly, and there was a point where Colin and I thought that we might have to donate our combined remaining $1200 ourselves, so that we'd be able to walk (we didn't, thankfully--we donated to each other, of course, but we weren't budgeting that much!)--and in other ways, it was much easier--the walk itself went significantly faster (3 hours faster, over the two days), and I felt like I was in much better physical shape for it.

Again, there are many more pictures than I'm able to post in one entry (and as it is, this entry isn't very dial-up friendly, just as a forewarning), so please check out the whole gallery either on Facebook (that's a public link to the gallery; you don't need an account to view it) or on my livejournal gallery.

So, on to the experience:

A week before the walk, Mom and I (well, mostly Mom, but I was an honorary co-host) hosted a fundraising tea for some of the ladies in her neighborhood (as well as Colin's mom). We dressed in pink, had pink goodies and decorations, got caught up (well, Mom and the others did--many of these women have moved in since I moved away from home, so I was meeting some of them for the first time), and showed the 2008 promo video. An interesting note about fundraising this year is that the tea was the only "event" that we did, unlike last year, where we held two book sales which brought in a significant amount of money. When I say that fundraising was slower this year, part of that is because it was all based on individual donations, as opposed to income from a fundraiser--and part of that is due to the fact that I haven't been in Calgary for any weekends leading up to the walk, between being in California until the end of May and then being out in Drumheller for the next two months after that.

But back to the pink tea...



We were provided with some lovely centerpieces--at a wedding the day before, Esther got to take home our table's centerpiece (which was displayed on the kitchen table, not in this picture), and I caught the bouquet, which provided some very nice flowers for the island. Good thing Katelyn's wedding was pink, too!



Mom also made "boob cookies," which of course Esther and I had to model.

By this time last Friday, we'd gone shopping for all the little necessities, broken in new shoes, packed up our foot care mini-clinic, and, most importantly, bought the pink hair dye. Colin and I spent the afternoon dying my hair and his beard--which looked far better with the dye still in than it did when we washed it out. Oh well; it was still very pink when caught in the right light.



This year's pink is brighter than last year's, and it's lasting longer, too. Just in case anyone's wondering (or looking), we used L'Oreal's Color Rays, which I highly recommend. It's formulated for dark hair, so the color is showing up much better on my head than it did last year.



That's about as good a picture of Colin's pink beard as we got. His head would have gone much brighter, we're sure, but his brother's wedding is in another week (two weeks after the walk), and we didn't want to take the chance of still having bright pink hair by then. (As for my hair, I may just dye over it, but we'll see how faded it is in a week.)

One thing that we saw last year and really appreciated was the way people acknowledged their donors. One team had pinned individual ribbons with each donor's name onto their packs, and we really liked the idea and decided to borrow it.



Friday evening, after we went to the Round-Up Centre and registered, but before my shift at work started, I spent an hour or so writing names and pinning ribbons onto our packs. These represent every individual or company who donated to us, and we wore their names with gratitude all weekend (and hopefully passed the idea on to someone else for next year!).

Yes--I said that after we registered, I still had to go to work. We both did, actually. This year, we didn't have the luxury of a good sleep before starting the walk, since both Colin and I are working evening shifts right now. We got off work a little after midnight, but after an emergency run to the 24-hour Wal-Mart and Shoppers Drug Mart for some last minute supplies, and after packing my bags for the weekend after we got home from work, it was closer to 2:30 by the time I got to bed and to sleep.

Saturday morning came bright and early. Mom and Dad picked us up at "6:15" (which was really more like 6:45), and we went back downtown, dropped off our gear so that it could be transported to camp for us, and grabbed some breakfast, making it into the Round-Up Centre just in time for the stretching and opening ceremonies to begin.

7:45 AM, we were on our way (unlike last year, where a Porta-Potty issue kept us held back for nearly an hour).



The three of us stuck together for the first few hours, past the first couple of rest stops (the one pictured above is just across Memorial from Prince's Island Park, and we're looking down from the top of the hill at walkers coming into the pit stop, the pit stop itself, and walkers coming out of it), and past the first cheering station in Confederation Park, where Esther, Carl, Dad, and Uncle Joel came to cheer us on.



After that, Colin and I lost Mom somewhere along the route--she ended up walking with Marylyn, a cousin who was also walking. Marylyn's team was walking too fast for her, and Colin and I were walking too fast for Mom, so they stuck together and we went on ahead. Colin's parents came to another cheering station after lunch, and Colin's mom walked with us for a couple of kilometres, too.

We made excellent time getting into camp (32 km into the route)--Colin and I got there at around 3:30, and had plenty of time to shower, stretch, unpack, and get our tents set up before Mom came in at around 4:45. We stood in line for massages and chiropractic care, but the aromatherapy that one woman was getting made me feel rather ill, so I ducked out, and the others followed me. By that point, it was raining, and we'd have rain, thunder, and lighting off and on all night.

I went to bed by around 9, but was woken up at midnight by a huge crack of thunder, and then was awake until probably about 3 AM, with a wide variety of rain, lightning, thunder, and wind. At around 2 AM, there were two spectacular thunder booms, which probably woke up everyone in the camp (it's amazing how many empty tents there were, as people decided that it would be wise to sleep at home or stay in a hotel and come back in the morning!). After the first one, Colin heard a woman in a tent near his say, "Well, we're all up now; we may as well just start walking!"

Fortunately, by the time we were up and ready to start walking the next morning, the rain had stopped and the sun was coming out, meaning that we could dress in the shorts we were initially planning to wear, rather than having to wear (and then carry) all our layers for the day.



We set out together for Day Two, and Mom actually kept up with us for most of the day! Colin wore his pink tie all weekend, getting some great remarks about dressing for the occasion and impressing people with the fact that it stayed on the whole time. The crew (particularly the moto crew) kept commenting on it every time we'd cross a street where they were directing traffic.



Speaking of the crew, they were absolutely amazing. The number of people that it takes to run an event like this--smoothly and safely--is phenomenal, and people really step up. From the administrative and registration side to the medical staff at every single pit stop to the people handing out food and water at pit stops to the sweep vehicles that drive along the route to the Boobs on Bikes gang (some of which are pictured above) that monitors major intersections (along with the police, at some of the most major roads), the volunteers are amazing, and there's no way that the weekend would happen without their time, dedication, enthusiasm, and outrageous costumes.



By lunchtime, feet need to breathe a little. We were incredibly proactive in our foot care--moleskin and toe protectors go a long way--and there were no blisters. Some people weren't so lucky (or prepared, perhaps), and the foot care section of the medical tents was always busy at every pit stop and at camp. (Yes, 60 km is a long way to walk, but we were kind of surprised at how many people were unprepared for it. At the end of the day, people were hobbling around like 80-year-olds, and while, for many, the walk was a major accomplishment [everyone from current cancer patients to 75-year-old grandmas takes part in this walk] we were kind of surprised that some of them [particularly some of the younger walkers who looked more athletic] weren't in better shape [or had taken better care of their feet throughout the weekend] to begin with, to avoid such pain. Actually, on Monday morning, neither Colin nor I was in pain at all--I could feel my muscles, but they weren't hurting, and the most pain I had was where I'd sunburned my part, since I was wearing pigtails. Oops.)





One of the great things about the walk is the houses along the route that decorate their yards and come out to cheer us on. Many people, kids and adults alike, set up lemonade stands, hand out watermelon, make signs, hand out freezies, and stand in their yards to cheer us on. The house pictured above had one of our favorite signs last year: "Helthy brests are best. Not just for you but for your babys." We figure that the little guy holding the hose was the inspiration for the sign! (And his big sister wasn't the only little girl we saw wearing her very best pink party dress.) This yard also has a clothesline of pink clothes, and this year, the clothes were bigger than last year. The snowman also made a reappearance, wearing a pink towel around his neck.



We finished at around 1:40 PM on Sunday, again, significantly earlier than last year. I'm mostly attributing my faster times to walking with Colin--I walk a fair bit faster with him than I did with Mom and Esther last year (and I still ended up ahead of them for much of the time!), and since we've been training together, I'm comfortable with our quicker pace. We did slow down quite a bit on Sunday so that Mom could keep up with us, but we stayed fast enough that it pushed her, probably more than it did us.

Dad and Esther were at the finish line just after we crossed it, so we came back outside (this sounds like a repeat of last year, doesn't it?) after getting our victory t-shirts and spent the next hour and a half cheering on the rest of the walkers as they came through.



It started raining about 30 minutes before all the walkers got in, and we stayed outside in the rain for as long as we could, but finally succumbed and went inside, where the rest of the crowd was cheering each walker in to the dry, warm building! Just as the last walker entered the building, it started to hail, but by the time we finished the closing ceremonies and were back outside an hour later, it was sunny and warm again.



The closing ceremonies are a time to celebrate the accomplishment with family and friends. The walkers are in blue, volunteers and crew in white, and breast cancer survivors in pink. It's moving (and, thankfully, fairly short, since the family and friends are the ones who get to sit down and the walkers have to stay standing for the whole ceremony!) and celebratory, and it's a great way to end the weekend.

All weekend, there are booths to sign up for the walk in 2009. So far, we haven't, but I'm sure we will soon. We'd love for you to walk with us--the more, the merrier! Next year, Colin's mom is thinking of walking, and Esther will be back and is trying to convince Justin to walk, too. Colin and I spent part of the weekend trying to think up team names for next year--so far, we like "The Mountains and Valleys," "The Spice Racks," or "Save a Boob, Walk a Sixty". These are all subject to change, but we think we're a pretty classy group, and you'd be doing well to join us. ;o)

Thank you, thank you, thank you again. As I've said before, we can't do it without you. Our donors get us there--the minimum fundraising amount is $2000 each, which is a far cry from the school fundraisers that we did over the years, but we're continually amazed at your generosity and support. We know that there are so many good causes out there to support, and we really appreciate the fact that you chose ours. Aside from the financial support, we've also appreciated the prayers, encouragement, and stories. This event draws a community together, and we're thankful to see that in our own personal communities, as well as the Calgary community at large.

This walk, for each of us, has always been about the past--both Colin's and my maternal grandmothers were diagnosed with breast cancer in the early 1960s and died while our mothers were young--and we've walked in memory of them. It's about the present, as we walk in honor of the women who are fighting this disease now, as we hear stories from our donors and supporters of the ways that breast cancer has impacted their lives, and this year it hits even closer to home, as a close family member was diagnosed with breast cancer the week before the walk. It's also about the future, as I'm aware that I'm genetically linked to this disease, and as Colin and I walked in hope for our own future and our kids' future, we're walking so that that a diagnosis of breast cancer (and really, a diagnosis of any sort of cancer) will someday cease to have the power over lives as it does today.