Monthly Archives: February 2015

9 Ways You Can Make Friends Through the 3-Day

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Today is Make a Friend Day, and we here at the Susan G. Komen 3-Day® know a thing or two about this particular skill. The Komen 3-Day has been bringing together family and friends, old and new, for years, and we’re not done yet! The 2015 3-Day® season is underway, and we thought it would be the friendly thing to do to share some ways that you can look forward to making friends during your 3-Day journey.

susan g. komen 3-Day breast cancer 60 mile walk blog friends

  1. Ask people to walk with you. (Okay, so technically, those people are probably already your friends, but think of how much closer you’ll be after you walk 60 miles together!)
  2. Go to a 3-Day community event! If you live in or near one of our 3-Day locations, you can attend a Get Started Meeting, Walk & Talk or any of the dozens of meet-ups taking place over the next few months. RSVP at The3Day.org/Calendar.
  3. Follow the 3-Day on social media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest are all terrific virtual “places” to meet your fellow walkers and crew members. More and more, we hear stories of people who became acquainted on social media, then meet in person for the first time when they get to the 3-Day. How wonderful that we live in a world where that’s possible!
  4. Attend a training walk. The 3-Day training walk calendar won’t start filling up for another month, after we finish recruiting and training our volunteer training walk leaders, but the coming spring will bring loads of options. So bookmark The3Day.org/trainingwalks and check it often. No training walks scheduled in your area? Think about leading one yourself and watch the friends come to you!susan g. komen 3-Day breast cancer 60 mile walk blog friends
  5. Wear your 3-Day gear. If you have a victory t-shirt from a past 3-Day, wear it out in public. Your fellow 3-Dayers around town will spot you and say hello, and those who are not involved with the 3-Day may ask you questions to find out what it’s all about. Don’t have a victory shirt? You can buy a variety of 3-Day shirts and other apparel at ShopKomen.com.
  6. Use the 3-Day Friend Finder. Registered participants can log in at The3Day.org/Friend and use this nifty tool for finding fellow walkers and crew members who live nearby.
  7. Call the coaches. There’s no one friendlier! The coaches love to hear from you, even if you don’t have a specific question and just want to say hello, so give them a jingle! 800-996-3DAY.
  8. Talk to strangers. Actually, we like to say that there ARE no strangers on the 3-Day, just friends you haven’t met yet. So when your 3-Day event rolls around, take the time to chat up the soon-to-be-friends you walk or crew alongside. Hear their stories and tell them yours.susan g. komen 3-Day breast cancer 60 mile walk blog friends
  9. There’s that one person you know, but right now, she’s just an acquaintance. She works in your building, or goes to your gym, or she’s got kids in the same school as your kids. But you know, through the grapevine, that she lost her mom to breast cancer. Go talk to her. Ask her how she’s doing. Tell her you’re walking. Maybe she’ll want to walk with you.

Love is in The Air: a Guest Post by Dr. Sheri

There are times when we feel lonely although we are surrounded by many, feel sad although we have so many things that make us happy or feel unloved although we know that to be the furthest thing from the truth. When I have these occasional moments, I stop, think about my Susan G. Komen 3-Day family and almost spontaneously a wide smile instinctively envelops my face. The reason is simple…it’s LOVE! Sometimes just the thought of the love we have received is enough to get us through a difficult day.

Love and be loved on the 3-Day.

Love and be loved on the 3-Day.

Our work and sacrifice on the 3-Day is grounded in love, by which I mean the capacity to extend ourselves for the sake of another person. Our work in the 3-Day community stretches us to understand, respect, and support each other, teaching us why learning to love is one of the most demanding disciplines we can choose. During every 3-Day, love is definitely in the air and you will carry that love with you long after your 3-Day has ended.

Dr. Sheri embraces a last walker on a 2014 3-Day.

Dr. Sheri embraces a last walker on a 2014 3-Day.

Keeping that love in your heart and in your mind when you are faced with difficulty is the basis of gratitude. When you are having trouble feeling gratitude, ask yourself, “What is more important? To value what I have or to value what I do not have?” Gratitude is valuing what you have. Ambition is valuing what you may or may not have in the future. If you drown the voice of gratitude in the roars of your ambitions, all you will be left with is a great deal of noise. Why? Because often ambitions are endless, whereas gratitude is the response to everything life has given you, everything you already have. Don’t get me wrong, having ambition is a good thing; it keeps us moving forward and allows us to reach our full potential. But be sure your ambitions never overshadow your gratitude for what you’ve already accomplished and what you’ve already been blessed to receive.

February 4th is World Cancer Day. Do Something Huge.

For Susan G. Komen 3-Day® participants, donors and supporters, the goal of eliminating breast cancer from the planet is in the forefront of our minds every day. Today, on World Cancer Day, we can feel the strength of that commitment touching us from all corners of the globe, as communities around the world unite to raise universal awareness of cancer issues and educate each other about everyone’s part in creating a cancer-free future.susan g. komen 3-Day breast cancer walk blog 60 miles world cancer day

Komen 3-Day friends, it’s a big, big world, and your dedication to the battle against breast cancer is as big as the oceans and mountains and sky. And what you’re doing is making a difference. See an event-by-event breakdown of what the 3-Day® accomplished in 2014, and witness some of the impact that Susan G. Komen® is having here: susan g. komen impact priorities challenges 2014Progress is being made, but we’re not at our destination yet, so we challenge each and every one of you to do something huge this year to bring us closer. Register for the 3-Day. Get someone to join you. Stand united with your 3-Day brothers and sisters and our entire worldwide humankind family to show that ending cancer in our lifetime isn’t just a dream, it’s an eventuality worth fighting for.