Monthly Archives: September 2014

Healthy Hooters: Because Your Battle is Our Battle.

In July, the Susan G. Komen Facebook page shared a beautiful photo and story that was heard around the Internet: after 26-year-old Brittany B. was diagnosed with breast cancer, her boyfriend proposed at a surprise pre-surgery party. As Brittany embarked on her treatment, a very special friend of her embarked on her own journey: fundraising $2,300 and walking 60 miles so that fewer women and men around the world ever have to hear the words “You have breast cancer.” Meet Jackie S., of Healthy Hooters, who is walking her first Susan G. Komen 3-Day® in Philadelphia this weekend.

Brittany B and Jackie P Susan G Komen 3 Day Philly Walk to End Breast Cancer

Why does Jackie walk? Because Brittany’s battle is her battle.

Jackie was initially asked to join the Komen 3-Day by some of her team members, the Healthy Hooters. The Healthy Hooters is a team made up of neighbors in their Downingtown neighborhood of Pennsylvania. The Healthy Hooters are all new participants, and their past and current experiences with breast cancer brought them all together. Team Captain Melany walks in memory of both of her grandmothers, both affected by breast cancer, and in honor of her friend Michelle, a 36-year-old breast cancer survivor. Team members Kristy and Sara both walk in honor of their breast cancer survivor moms, team member Megan walks in honor of a family friend and team members Janis and Heather also walk for family and friends affected by breast cancer.

Team Healthy Hooters celebrates victory after Day 1 at Camp

Team Healthy Hooters celebrates victory after Day 1 at Camp

Like many other new 3-Dayers, Jackie initially had concerns about joining the 3-Day. “I went back and forth for about three weeks thinking I wanted to, but was always worried about fundraising. My heart eventually lead me to my decision. Eight days after I signed up, Brittany was diagnosed.” Jackie and Brittany have been close friends for eight years, and Jackie calls Brittany her “Little Sister.” “I have no siblings, so to have someone in my life to fill this role has been such a blessing,” said Jackie.

Brittany is more than halfway done with her treatment, and a quick search of her Instagram hashtag, #beitelstrong, shows how many people are rooting her on and showing support. You can follow her journey through the Susan G. Komen Facebook page.

As the team wraps up Day 1 of their 3-Day journey, I ask them if they have any thing they’d like to say now that they’ve conquered 21.5 miles around beautiful Philadelphia.  Their unanimous rallying cry? “Your battle is our battle.”

Jackie adds, “60 miles is nothing compared to the journey that loved ones are going through with breast cancer.  You can do this. You can’t go through life being a spectator. You have to be a participant.” Every day, we’re so grateful to all of our participants – walkers, crew and volunteers, for being such a passionate part of our fight to end breast cancer.

 

Meet the Seattle 3-Day Coaches

Every Susan G. Komen 3-Day® event has a core team of three coaches, each of whom plays a different role in helping our walkers and crew members prepare for the Komen 3-Day. For months, these dedicated staffers have been having personal conversations with walkers to help them with their training and fundraising, have hosted dozens of local events to bring participants together and build a community of encouragement, and have organized and inspired the amazing team of crew captains and crew members.

Let’s meet the coaches for the Seattle 3-Day®!

Aubrey Cushing – Seattle Local Events Coach

susan g. komen 3-day breast cancer walk meet the seattle coaches aubrey

Aubrey at Aubree’s!

Describe your job in 10 words or fewer. – “Arranging events and surprises to keep excitement around every corner!”

We’re a couple weeks from the Seattle event. What’s a typical day like for you these days? – “Lots of emotions, emails, phone calls, confirmations, excitement and anticipation. I’m finalizing cheering stations, camp entertainment and a few surprises!”

What are 3 things that we didn’t know about you? – “1) In addition to Washington, I have lived in California, Montana, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Maine and Florida; 2) I’m often heard singing my sentences…with jazz hands! 3) I’m obsessed with the ocean, trees and tacos.”

 

Paula Hultman – Seattle Participant Coach

susan g. komen 3-day breast cancer walk meet the seattle coaches paula

Paula always stops for a passionately pink fur buddy!

Describe your job in 10 words or fewer. – “I provide information, and receive inspiration from our 3-Day community.”

We’re a couple weeks from the Seattle event. What’s a typical day like for you these days? – “B.U.S.Y! I handle a lot of donations-related matters for participants, and share my fundraising experience and expertise whenever I hear from someone working toward reaching their goal. I think my favorite calls are from first-time walkers, because I remember my first 3-Day pre-event jitters! I can tell them what it’s like to walk 20 miles a day, shower in a truck, and use porta-potties for 3 days, but I can’t prepare them for how the 3-Day will make them feel! Every veteran walker knows what I mean when I say the 3-Day experience is indescribable.”

What are 3 things that we didn’t know about you? – “1) I am a Disneyland junkie, and can point you to any number of ‘hidden Mickeys’ within the park; 2) My husband and I were chosen to be participants on The Amazing Race in 2004, after the casting director met us at the 3-Day in Los Angeles. Sadly, we had to decline the offer due to work schedules. It was our 15 seconds of fame! 3) My secret talent is the ability to tie a cherry stem into a knot with my tongue.”

 

Jon Lueders – Seattle Crew & Volunteer Coordinator

susan g. komen 3-day breast cancer walk meet the seattle coaches jon

Jon meeting his sweet newborn niece

Describe your job in 10 words or fewer. – “I am the support system for all things crew-related.”

We’re a couple weeks from the Seattle event. What’s a typical day like for you these days? – “A typical day involves reacting to many changes that come along in our run up to the event. This mostly involves keeping crew captains informed and being around when the inevitable questions and technical issues pop up.”

What are 3 things that we didn’t know about you? – “1) I once had a car catch fire while I was driving it; 2) I slept with a stuffed animal on my bed from childhood through college (including my away track meets). 3) I have a brand new baby niece (1 day old as I write this).”

 

Going to be at the Seattle 3-Day? Come meet coaches Aubrey and Paula at two special meet-and-greets, on Friday and Saturday in camp, 6-7 p.m., in the 3-Day Lounge.

 

 

Hashing Out #Hashtags with #The3Day

Remember the old days, when the pound sign was just a way to indicate a number? How times have changed. These days, that little crisscross symbol has an entirely new function and a new name: a hashtag.

susan g. komen 3-day breast cancer walk blog hashtag word cloud

Created at www.tagxedo.com

What are Hashtags? – Put simply, hashtags are identifiers that are used to group together posts on social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) that relate to similar topics. Say you want to go onto Twitter and find/follow all of the posts about the Super Bowl. You can search for #superbowl, and any public posts that include that identifier will show up in your search results. Unlike a full internet search, where you would go to a search engine like Google or Yahoo and search for the term “Super Bowl,” then get links to a bunch of websites, instead, you search for a hashtag within a specific site. The results for #SuperBowl in Twitter will be different than the results in Instagram.

A Secondary (and Less Functional) Use of Hashtags – Incidentally, hashtags have also taken on a secondary purpose: punchline. Often now, you’ll see people post about some topic, then to punctuate the underlying emotion, or add an afterthought or meta commentary about the post, they include a hashtag. For example, you could post a picture of your smiling, food-covered toddler on Instagram with the caption, “We’re pretty sure she liked the spaghetti! #bathtime #laundrytimetoo”. You say something with the post, then add a little extra commentary with hashtags. In cases like this, the intent of the hashtag is not to group your post with other posts of the same topic, but to quickly and succinctly add a funny, poignant or impactful gist to your comment.

The Possibilities are Limitless – Anyone can make a hashtag, but there are a few rules and practices that go along with creating a hashtag: letters and numbers are okay, but no spaces or punctuation (except dashes and underscores); capital letters can be used to show separation between words without affecting the function of the hashtag (i.e., #SesameStreet and #sesamestreet are seen as identical in the eyes of the internet, but the former might look a little nicer); try to keep each hashtag short and to-the-point; using too many hashtags can dilute the impact of your post, so choose wisely. But beyond that, the possible hashtags you could come up with are boundless as the World Wide Web itself.

Soooo…What Does This All Have to Do With the 3-Day? – As you (hopefully) have noticed, the 3-Day has been using hashtags in its posts all year to pinpoint its place in the social media space. Hashtag #The3Day has been all over Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as a way to identify and group together posts about our event—ones that come from us, as well as posts that come from our followers and supporters. Aside from the primary #The3Day hashtag, we also have hashtags for each individual event (#MI3Day, #TC3Day, #PHL3Day, #SEA3Day, #ATL3Day, #DFW3Day and #SD3Day). Hashtags allow you (and us) to easily browse through our social media platforms to find other people who are talking about the 3-Day. Or should we say #The3Day.susan g. komen 3-day breast cancer walk blog hashtag location specific

Instagram Photo Challenges – One specific hashtag-driven activity that the 3-Day has started is an on-event photo challenge for each of the seven 3-Day events. Be sure to check out our Instagram @Komen3Day to play along!

3DAY_2015_SocialMedia_PhotoChallenge_#The3Day_fp