When your friend or co-worker or loved one is walking or crewing on the Susan G. Komen 3-Day For The Cure and they get to camp, there are several things kind of like you get at home. There’s a lounge with a tv. There’s a dining tent where people cook food for you and provide you with entertainment when you eat. There are foot massages and back massages. Port-O-Potties, a sea of pink tents. You don’t have all this stuff at home? Well, chances are that even though you might not have most of these things at home there is something at camp that can help remind your walkers of home. A post office.

That’s right, a post office that you can write to your favorite walker at. Send them a message about how proud you are of them. Or send them a message to joke around. The important thing here is letting them know that you’re thinking of them, because I can guaranty you that they are thinking of you.

Now, you may be thinking to yourself that if you’re close family with your walker that you shouldn’t send them mail because you’re going to see them the day before the walk and also when you come to the cheering stations. You are coming to the cheering stations, right? From the perspective of a walker, I can say that it’s fantastic to see everyone at the cheering stations, it is a real boost to help you Keep Going®.  That’s the key phrase, Keep Going.  When you’re walking and still moving, a lot of the soreness and pain that you can potentially feel is held at bay by the fact that you’re moving.  Plus the adrenaline and seeing the cheering stations and everything about the event.  When you get back to camp, you stop moving.  The soreness and pain that was held at bay all through the day (at least partially!) comes back and it’s really nice to have a letter from home to remind you of why you’re doing this.  It’s like a mini-cheering station just for you.

Hopefully my couple of short paragraphs have made you say, “Great!  I’m going to write a letter!  Sign me up!  Uhh, where and when do I send this letter?”  So the good news is that you don’t have to do a whole lot of hunting for the address in some ancient address book.  All you have to do is go to the 3-Day web page (http://the3day.org) and click Get Involved and then Spectator Info.  Select the city that your walker or crew is participating in and on the resulting page you should see an address to send your letters to.  If you read through this information you will also have a date that you have to send your letter by which is usually at least a couple of weeks before the event.  Please remember to plan ahead!  One last thing.  You may not see the information on there yet for the city that you are sending to.  The 3-Day does not release this information too far ahead of time, if you don’t see the information, check back about a month before the date of the walk.  This will give you enough time to get the address as well as put it in the mail.

So you’ve sent your mail and you feel great about doing something that will give them a boost at camp and maybe you’re wondering if this is something that you can keep doing.  Well, does your walker or crew belong to a team?  If so, consider writing the teammates a letter.  If you’ve already done that and are STILL wanting to write more letters, then I can suggest looking on the 3-Day Tweeps web site here: http://3daytweeps.com/meet-the-tweeps/.  This is a group of people on Twitter who have a virtual team that they give each other advice and support on their 3-Day journey.  If you’re looking for someone to write a letter to, check them out, they are a great bunch of people.

The last little bit I have to write about is directed to the walkers and crew.  Hopefully your friends and loved ones have seen this post and decided that they will send you a message.  Don’t do what I did in Boston earlier this year and forget to check the mail!  You’ll feel pretty bummed afterward that you didn’t check it and if someone asks if you got their letter you will feel even worse.  So make sure you check the mail to get your mini-cheering station!  You never know who might mail you!