Building Connections: The 3-Day Coaches’ Favorite Moments from 2013, Part 1

They talk to you on the phone, reply to your emails, conduct informational meetings and workshops, and support the participants on each event. They are the Susan G. Komen 3-Day® coaches, and their job is to help people fundraise, train for and learn more about the Komen 3-Day. As a former 3-Day® coach myself for 4 years, I can attest to what a gift it was to work at a job that is a daily source of inspiration. The 3-Day family is one of the best examples I’ve ever seen of the power of goodness at work in the world, and that goodness comes from our awesome walkers and crew members.

I went to my fellow coaches and asked about their favorite memories and moments from the 2013 3-Day season. From inspiring conversations, to overcoming challenges, to shared triumphs, the coaches have seen it all. Today and for the next few 3-Day blog posts, I’ll be sharing some of those moments with you.

Philadelphia coach Lisa Stephens was particularly touched by one family’s journey together. “I met Brad T. and two of his children at a Get Started Meeting. Brad had lost his wife, and the kids had lost their mom, just a year earlier and they were still struggling emotionally and mentally with the hole that it left in their family. What I loved about my first encounter with them was the support and love they had for each other. They promised to train together, fundraise together and to walk the 3-Day in honor of this amazing woman. I saw them many times on event, hugged them every time and even met the third child, who joined the 3-Day as part of the Young Women Walking. So often we hear of how helpless a family member feels when a loved one is fighting cancer, and this event offers people the ability to not feel so helpless…to take action and stand together in this fight. Seeing them all weekend, I know I will see them back in 2014.”

Brad and his children walked in memory of the wife and mom they lost last year.

Another one of our Dallas/Fort Worth coaches, Lauren Lueders, had a conversation with a San Diego walker a few weeks before the event which moved her in a personal way. “It’s only fitting that one of my favorite moments of 2013 includes our very beloved Bridget Spence. I was talking to Patti A., a San Diego walker, and I congratulated her on her fundraising. She had raised $3,000, and she went on to tell me the story of her last donation to get her to $3,000. She was on a training walk and mentioned that she was only $29 shy of the $3,000 mark. When she arrived home there was a donation on her page that simply read ‘In Memory of Bridget Spence.’” Bridget, a former 3-Day coach and walker, passed away in April after an eight-year battle with breast cancer. She was 29 years old, and after she died, the 3-Day community took it upon themselves to initiate a trend of making $29 donations to fellow walkers, often anonymously, with the simple message, “In Memory of Bridget.” Lauren continues, “As I talked with Patti, she shared all of the wonderful things she had heard about Bridget, and the $29 grassroots fundraising efforts in memory of Bridget. It was a perfect reminder of the spirit of the 3-Day family.”

Earlier in the year, Gayla Cruikshank replied to an email that simply asked for some info about cheering stations, but that email began a poignant conversation between her and first-time Dallas/Fort Worth walker Thomas R. “I asked Thomas about his reason for walking and he told me that his mom died from breast cancer 35 years ago, when he was only 15 years old. He has been looking for some way to honor her memory for decades. When his friend told him about the 3-Day, he just KNEW this was exactly what he’d been looking for. He said he gets choked up talking about it and the experience he had, and it put a lump in my throat as well. I knew exactly how he was feeling from the experience he had on the 3-Day.He said being a guy on the event was very intimidating, but at the end of day 1, he knew he was hooked. He’s already signed up for 2014 and is ready to help me at some Get Started Meetings and social gatherings so we can share what the 3-Day community has done for us.”

Thomas and friends on Day 3

Continue reading →

2013 Photographer’s Picks

“What’s your favorite photograph?” People ask this from time to time, wanting some insight into what the photographer likes. My response usually resembles that of a father being asked which of his children are his favorite. It’s hard to pick just one. While the Susan G. Komen 3-Day^® Series is an extremely bright and pink event, some of my personal selects may not be the ones that participants would select themselves. I’ve enjoyed some of the quiet moments, usually when participants don’t realize they’ve been photographed. I’ve enjoyed the finish lines, where a thousand stories are passing by you, unknown to most spectators. I’ve enjoyed trying to capture some of that deep emotion in a glance or a smile. Unposed.

National Geographic photographer Steve McCurry used the term “unguarded moments” when he described some his portraits, and I believe that encapsulates some of the authenticity that the photojournalist is always looking for, a rawness in the moment. The Komen 3-Day does offer that, behind all of the elaborate pink costumes, the masks, the sunglasses. It offers many the opportunity to defeat their preconceived notions about their physical ability, and more importantly about their mental capability. I hope that some of these images do justice to those people. Enjoy.

Go Walking in a 3-Day Wonderland in 2014 – for only $35!

For Susan G. Komen 3-Day® participants, the most wonderful time of the year is those 3 beautiful days in the summer or fall spent walking toward a world without breast cancer. And even though there are not any more Komen 3-Day events this year, you can still feel some of that 3-Day magic by making a commitment now to walk again with family and friends in 2014.

The days are shorter, the temperatures lower, and time is running out to register for the 2014 3-Day® for just $35. This discounted registration fee will expire at midnight tomorrow, December 12^th. You don’t need a special code for this discount – just register for the 3-Day (at The3Day.org or by calling 800-996-3DAY), and you’ll get the lowest price of the year. On December 13^th, the price will go up, so you don’t want to wait!

This holiday season, give yourself the gift of a life-changing 3 days, and you’ll also be giving the world the gift of hope for the day when we will be able to celebrate an end to breast cancer.