Peter Piper Pizza has agreed to let me do a fundraising event at their Highland Village location on February 5th of 2009. They will donate 15% of all food and drink purchases for anyone that brings in a flyer (which I will post for anyone to print out as soon as I have the final copy). If you would like to come by, or you would like to have friends come by or both, let me know and I will make sure that you have a flyer. Big thanks for Peter Piper Pizza! The Highland Village location is at:

200 Marketplace Ln
Highland Village, TX

Some tips that they suggested everyone remember are:

1. The more people that are there, the more that we can raise for the fight against breast cancer! Invite family, friends and co-workers!

2. Bring your flyer. I will post a link to this later or you can get one from me. Present your flyer to the cashier to get credit for your purchase.

3. Buy your tokens at the register, not the machines. We don’t get credit for tokens bought at the machines.

4. Won’t be able to stay? Get a pizza for takeout, we still get credit!

5. Have fun! Not only is this a fundraiser, it’s a family event.

We hope to see you there!

 

I have had some questions from people that have looked at the site asking what it’s all about. Here it is:

Since 2007, I have walked in the Breast Cancer 3-Day. This is a 60-mile walk over the course of three days that is designed to raise funds for breast cancer awareness initiatives, breast cancer prevention and research. Every walker has to raise at least $2300, the bulk of which goes to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. In 2008, the Dallas/Fort Worth 3-Day had 3,200 people walking and raised 7.9 million dollars.

This is a really amazing event not only for the money it raises, but when you walk on the route for the 3-day you meet all sorts of people for all sorts of reasons. I’ve walked with some of the strongest people that I have ever met at this event and I’m proud to be a walker. If you are interested in donating, please click the “Donate Now!” link to the right and if you would like to join my team for the next 3-Day event, click my team name link on the right and then click Join Team on the resulting page. Thank you in advance for any help you can provide!

 

I would like to extend a welcome to Ryan Sparks who recently joined my team. Ryan’s sister walked in the 2008 breast cancer three day with a different team and he joins us this year. Currently he is in Chicago, but he will be moving to the Dallas/Fort Worth area in May.

 

I got my first donation about a week ago! Thanks for Erin Ostenson for being the first donor of the year! I met Erin on the 2008 3-Day walk and she gave me some great fundraising ideas that I hope to implement as the year goes on! Thanks again!

 

Three days and sixty miles later, my sister and I completed the 2008 Breast Cancer 3-Day. A lot of stuff went on, so I will just give a brief recap by day of what I remember:

Day 1

We started out Day 1 in the dark and cold at Southfork Ranch in Parker, TX. There’s something about starting at that time of day in that time of year. There is dew on the ground and your shoes get wet and that’s never a good thing when you’re getting ready to walk 20 miles for the day.

Julie and I were quite a hit that day due to the bras that were strapped to our backpacks (I could only guess how many pictures of our packs are out there somewhere). We had a bra on for each person or company that donated more than $250 to our efforts, we had 5 total. The goal was to carry them all 60 miles and have people sign them all the way. I have to say it was quite a bit of fun to see people’s reactions when I asked, “Excuse me, would you sign my bra?”

Day 1 continued on and we ended up being very close to the closing time at most of the pit stops. We skipped lunch at the stop because of a huge line that would have taken too long to get through and had peanut butter and jelly, chips and string cheese at the next stops.

Port-o-potties were everywhere. Which was the same as last year.

They did not have the peanut butter, jelly and graham crackers as last year, which was disappointing.

We got back to camp and the showers and hot food were a welcome relief, but I do think it’s adding insult to injury (or at least sore muscles) to have to set up a tent after 20 miles. A lot of people said the food wasn’t good, but after that many miles, I think anything would have probably tasted good to me.

Day 2

Soreness and top of the morning coldness greeted us on day 2. More walking and “water features”. About a mile in I had to stop Julie on the verge of tears and make sure that she wanted to continue walking. I wanted to make sure that she would be able to walk to closing ceremonies. She decided to walk on and pushed through a lot of pain. I have to say that I’m really impressed at the strength she showed getting to that next pit stop to get her foot wrapped. After that, she was able to move with less pain and we continued on.

This day we managed to get lunch, which was ok. Not great, it fell apart. I managed to spill fruit juice over myself when opening a fruit cup which caused the bees to converge on me. I didn’t get to eat much of my lunch after that. Go bees.

Day 2 brought us the most awesome cheering station though. It had to be several hundred yards long and there were tons of people there. It was great to see family and co-workers there cheering us on, it was a huge spirit lifter.

We got back to camp, went to the showers and experienced the shower nazi. You’re not really supposed to go straight to the showers when you get back. You are supposed to get a drink, get some food and then go. I don’t think a whole lot of people do though. I usually drank half a bottle of water and then went, and when I got there this time, there was a medic who wouldn’t let anyone into the shower area unless they had a cup of water or gatorade in their hand.

When we went to bed that night, Julie was talking and every sentence she said was kind of random. She stopped for a minute, so I said, “It smells like butter.” She gave me a weird look and asked what that was about and I said, “Well, you were saying all of this stuff out of the blue and you paused, so I thought it was my turn”. We both had a good laugh about that.

Day 3

I actually woke up feeling pretty darn good on day 3. We had breakfast and Julie went to the medic tent to get her feet taken care of. I took down the tent and was ready to go, but she was waiting in line. She told me to go on and we would meet up later. They ended up bussing her to a pit stop and we actually did meet up just about lunch time. This was actually how a lot of the day went, I would stop for something and she would continue on and I would catch up later.

We got to the end and were walking in being cheered by everyone. We were both getting a little teary eyed, so she said “It smells like butter”. It took me a minute to figure out what she was talking about but it lightened the mood significantly.

From there we went to the closing ceremony.

There’s a lot of stuff that I have left out, probably a lot that would make it seem much more fun than what I wrote. Unfortunately, I waited too long to write this, so this is what I have left over at the top of my memory. We had a great time, the DFW 3-Day raised 7.9 million dollars for breast cancer research, education and prevention. I think that’s pretty awesome to be a part of that.