The Insider’s Guide to the 3-Day – Camp: Just Like a Sleepover, Only More Pink

Just imagine: You did it! You finished Day 1 of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day®.

You logged thousands of steps and boy, do your feet feel it. You filled up on string cheese, animal crackers and orange slices and you emptied your water bottle (and your bladder) a dozen times. You took a hundred pictures. You’re sweaty and spent, but looking ahead, you can see the pointy tops of a giant white tent in the distance, like the most welcome circus ever. You hear music and clapping growing louder. Suddenly, you’re filled with exhilaration as you approach the end point, surrounded on all sides by cheering admirers.

High fives for everyone!

The support you had all along the route kept you moving, and right now, it propels your tired body, arms raised triumphantly above your head, over the finish line. You’ve arrived at last to your home away from home for the next 2 nights – CAMP!

Holy smokes, you need to pee again…

Okay, feel better now?

Welcome to Camp!

I’m probably one of the least outdoorsy people you’ll ever meet. My idea of “roughing it” is a hotel without room service. So when I did my first 3-Day, my thought was, “You want me to sleep where now?”

Seriously? THIS is where I get to stay? Yes please!

But it didn’t take long for me to fall in love with camping on the 3-Day, because the 3-Day camp is so many things to me:

It’s a big, colorful, vibrantly delightful part of the full 3-Day experience.
It’s the long-sought and welcome refuge at the end of a 20-mile road.
It’s full of community and congratulations and comfort.
Oh, sweet relief, it’s a warm shower!
It’s a place where it is perfectly acceptable—expected, even—to wear your jammies to dinner.
It’s where my team and I join each other again and share our stories from the route. Have you ever had one of those experiences where you get to the end of the day, then recall something that happened just that morning, and it feels like forever ago? THAT’S the 3-Day! There is SO much life packed into a single day on the 3-Day, that you can spend the whole evening talking and laughing and hugging and crying about things that happened just a few hours ago. And that’s what you do at camp.

The Clean Machines (aka, the 3-Day Shower Trucks)

The fact that they have built showers into the back of semi-truck trailers is American ingenuity at its best, if you ask me. How else could you expect to get hundreds of road-weary walkers and crew members all clean and relaxed while camped out in a mobile city? Other bathing options may be passable (I’ve done mud runs where they literally hosed us down at the end), but the 3-Day shower trucks—like everything else on the 3-Day—exceed expectations. Each truck is divided into private stalls, complete with hooks and benches for your stuff, and you can take as long a shower as you want to. The water pressure is good, and I am pleased to report that I have never taken a cold shower on the 3-Day. Outside the showers, you’ll find baskets of sample-sized beauty products, as well as hair drying stations. There’s even an optional towel service that you can buy so that you don’t have to worry about packing up damp towels. It’s not uncommon to hear audible, sincere sighs of contentment from walkers exiting the showers. A clean walker is a happy walker, ready to take on more miles tomorrow.

Showers on trucks. Brilliant.

A Pink Tent for Two

On the 3-Day, you will share a sleeping tent with one other person. Just you and a buddy, sharing a 6’ x 6’ tent. Some of you are panicking now just thinking about it, I can tell. But take my word, you’ll be fine. Your tent serves a very specific function: to cover you when you’re asleep. The rest of your time in camp will be spent out and about doing other things (which we’ll get to in the next couple of Insider’s Guide posts). You don’t need a whole ton of room for sleeping, and you’ll be so darned tired anyway, it won’t really matter much where you are.

Remember that bag you dropped off early on Day 1? It’s waiting for you at camp, just like baggage claim.

Off to your tent!

Susan G. Komen 3-Day® walker take on Day 3 for breast cancer awareness.

Volunteer “tent angels” will help you get your abode all set up.

Ahhhhhh!

Take your tent, multiply it by a few hundred, and the result is “Tent City.” It really is a sight to see all of those charming pink nylon domes popped up throughout the campsite. If you’re part of a team, your tents will all be next to each other, like your own little block party in the neighborhood. And like in the neighborhoods you walked through on the route that day, Tent City’s residents pull out all the stops on decorations too, decking out their tents in bras, banners, boas and balloons. You’re encouraged to decorate your tent, or if you decide not to, at least take note of the adornments on the tents near yours; it will help when you’re trying to find your way back from the porta-potties in the middle of the night (“I’m two tents down and one over from the twinkle lights and inflatable palm trees.”).

Home pink home.

Fabulous tent flair is a common sight on the 3-Day

Susan G. Komen walker gear up and take on Day 1 for breast cancer awareness.

Teams tent together, in all kinds of weather.

Susan G. Komen walkers gear up and take on Day 2 to find a cure for breast cancer.

Just another beautiful morning in Tent City.

My TFL (Tentmate For Life) is my friend Sondra. We fill our little pink home with a queen-sized air mattress, which comfortably cushions us in our two sleeping bags, while still leaving enough room along the side for our bags. There have even been times when we’ve left our bags outside the tent at night (tucked nicely into enormous trash bags for protection from the elements) to give ourselves a little more space. We wear flashlights on our foreheads without feeling the least bit silly. We set our alarms for earlier than we’d like, but it makes it a little easier knowing that the other will rise and shine at the same time. We laugh at each other trying to maneuver into our sleeping bags, and we eventually zip ourselves in, then whisper and giggle for a few minutes, before the earplugs go in and we’re quickly asleep.

Me and my TFL Sondra, ready to take on another day!

The next Insider’s Guide post will get into more of the exciting things awaiting you at camp. I don’t want to say too much now, so I’ll just tease two words: dance party.
Want to see the entire Insider’s Guide to the 3-Day? Here are all of the segments:

The Start of Something Beautiful
Pointing, Pacing, and… Motorcycles Wearing Lingerie
Pit Stops and Cheering and Sweeps, Oh My!
3-Day Camp: Just Like a Sleepover, Only More Pink
3-Day Camp: I love the Night Life
3-Day Camp: Happy Glamping on Main Street
Over But Not Ending

“The 3-Day Crew prepared me for Snowmageddon.”

Early this week, I got the following email from Libby, the Crew & Volunteer Coordinator for the Susan G. Komen Atlanta 3-Day:

“You have probably heard by now that Atlanta was hit with a fast moving, low producing snow storm this past Tuesday. While most of the country would not blink at a mere 3 inches of snow, it launched a chain of events in Atlanta that has left the city reeling. Even days later.

“As the snow started to fall, schools quickly dismissed and parents hit the roads to go pick up their children. There were lots of factors involved, but the short story is that Atlanta was not prepared. The roads had not been salted and trucks that were on the road were quickly stuck in gridlock traffic. Over the next 30 HOURS, thousands of people where stuck in their cars. The school system shut down its transportation and kids that were on buses were sent back to school. Thousands of children were stranded at school, with parents not able to get to them. I will let you look up all of the gory details but the magic that came from the storm was amazing. People walked in groups for miles to get home. People took in strangers to spend the night and have a place to shelter. Men with 4-wheel-drive vehicles spent all night rescuing cars in ditches on the side of the roads. All while teachers and administrators took care of over 5,000 children left in Atlanta schools to spend the night.”

Georgia Department of Transportation

It was a grim and frightening recap of events, a first-hand account which I had seen versions of on the news for days. But Libby was bringing all of this up to spotlight an email exchange she had with Eileen S., a 10-year crew member/crew captain on the Atlanta 3-Day. Eileen, who works at an Atlanta hospital, had shared with Libby her experience with the storm, saying, “There were so many horror stories of people stuck for 8+ hours. It was actually okay here [at the hospital]. Almost a 3-Day experience since we all pitched in wherever we were needed. I’m in charge of the laboratory information systems, but that didn’t stop me from moving recliners (for visitors, patient families, etc.), doing bed counts and working the hot food line in the cafeteria. Sometimes, I think the 3-Day prepares you for any emergency. I took it all in stride.”

Eileen weathering another storm on the 3-Day (with a smile!)

I got in touch with Eileen and asked her to elaborate on how her 3-Day Crew background helped her last week, and she shared, “Whether it’s the 3-Day or my position [at work], I’m of the mind that you do whatever is needed to help. I knew when I started working in a healthcare facility (many years ago) that people don’t fall ill Monday–Friday, 9-5 on sunny days only. So, you do what you need to do. Same thing for the 3-Day. My responsibility is to do whatever is needed to support the walkers, the crew, the event staff and to make it a safe and unforgettable experience.

“The bottom line is whether I’m crewing or at work, I’m service-oriented. My friends thought I was doing something special. I thought it was just part of what I do.”

Libby agreed, “Eileen is right. The 3-Day is a place where we ask crew members to go above and beyond. To show kindness in everything they do. To work long hours and get little sleep. To work together, with strangers, for the good of the cause. And to be ready for anything. I am thankful for the 3-Day and people like Eileen.”

We are too.

Fundraising for the 3-Day: Ready… Set… Start NOW!

When it comes to fundraising for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day®, getting started early is the way to go. You may be saying, “But my event isn’t for another 7 (or 8, 9, or 10) months. I have plenty of time!” This is true, but consider:

That time will fly by. You know it will. It always does.
Our years of experience have shown that walkers who get their fundraising started early are far more likely to reach their goals. The ones who get started early don’t have to call a 3-Day coach in a panic with three weeks to go until the event and say “help!” (Though we’re there for those people, too. We’ve got your back!)
You will have other things to do to prepare for the 3-Day as it gets closer (Training! Travel planning! Recruiting teammates!), so why not knock out your fundraising early? It will be SUCH a weight off your shoulders to know that you’ve reached your minimum early and aren’t scrambling for donations at the end amidst everything else you have to do.
The earlier you get to that $2300 minimum, the more time you have to exceed that amount and bring even more dollars to the cause of ending breast cancer forever.

So how do you get started? Here are a few practical, specific tips to get things rolling:

List your BFFs – Here’s an exercise for you: Set a timer for 1 minute, and write down the first 15 names that come to your head. Think about the people who are closest to you. Your best friends. Your family. Your biggest supporters. The people who were most excited/amazed/inspired about you registering for the 3-Day in the first place. These are the people who know you the best, love you the greatest, and are most invested in helping you achieve your goals. They’re the ones you’re going to start with.
Ask – No brainer, right? It is, but you’d be surprised how often this one little step trips people up. Well good thing you have that list from step 1 of amazing people who want to see you succeed. Reach out to each one of them personally. Now is not the time for emails or texts. Make a phone call, plan a chat over coffee or happy hour (your treat, of course!) or write a handwritten note. It’s only February, so you have time to put in that little extra touch of personal effort. Tell them how much doing the 3-Day means to you, and ask them to support you with a donation. Some of you are probably thinking, “I hate to impose on my friends!” and my response is this: they are not going to be mad or offended that you asked them for a donation. On the contrary, they will be honored that you considered them important enough to come to first. Show them the list you made, then let them put a big pink checkmark next to their name. Carry the list with you when you walk. (You just got chills, didn’t you?)
Share Why NOW is Important – Sometimes, donors will respond to your request by saying they’ll donate “when it’s closer to your walk.” I call these people procras-donators, and you still love and respect them, but you have a great opportunity here to put them straight in their thinking. Tell your donors that the funds that you bring in to the 3-Day go to work right away, helping pay for research grants, local outreach, and programs in our communities immediately. Somewhere, there’s a woman who is seeking support from Susan G. Komen® today, in February. She can’t wait until it’s closer to your walk, so encourage your donors not to wait either. (And if, in the end, they still ask to wait, put a big red circle on your calendar for one month from today, then ask them again. They’ve already said yes and next month, you’ll be “closer.”)
Break it Down – No, not a dance break, though, if that’ll help you get motivated, I say go for it! I’m talking about breaking down your fundraising goal into smaller, less intimidating amounts. Yes, $2300 is a lot of money to raise. But how does $12 sound? With exactly 192 days between today and Day 1 of the Michigan 3-Day (the first of the 2014 events), all you would have to raise is $12 a day. That’s just one way to break down your goal. You could also break it down by week ($85.19 per week for Michigan), by mile ($38.33 for each of your 60 miles), or make it nice and round ($23 from 100 people). Makes it a heck of a lot less daunting, doesn’t it? You can do the “break it down” trick at any point, but the longer you wait, the higher that “per day” amount gets. So try it now, and watch those $12 donations pour in! (Oh, and any time you want to see how many days or weeks you have left until your event, just log in to your Participant Center on the 3-Day website. You’ll find the countdown right at the top.)

I know that the thought of starting your fundraising can be overwhelming, and so you put it off in the hope of avoiding that scariness just a little longer. When I feel that way, I always remind myself that whatever anxiety I’m feeling about fundraising is nothing—nothing!—compared to the terror of hearing the words, “You have breast cancer.” I don’t ever want to hear those words. I don’t ever want my daughters to hear them. So I’m going to keep raising money for the 3-Day, and keep us moving toward a world without breast cancer.

Starting now.