Category Archives: General

Pros and Cons of Being a Loyal Volunteer (or 3-Day Crew Member)

To finish out National Volunteer Week, we are breaking down all the pros (and even some of the cons) of being a loyal 3-Day volunteer and Crew Member.

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Pro: You’ve proudly collected and saved each T-shirt from every event you’ve supported.

Con:  You’ve outgrown your dresser space and even after repurposing your extras into creative items (skirts, shorts, pillows, and quilts), your closet still resembles a T-shirt store.

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Pro: Walkers and runners are so thankful at seeing your smiling face as you hand them a refreshing cup of water at a hydration stop.

Con:  Your co-workers look at you strangely when in the break room you cheer “Eat, drink, pee, and there will be no IV.”

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Pro: Participants love seeing your creative and flashy outfits at their rest stops.

Con: You have burns on your fingertips from hot gluing decorations to your clothes.

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Pro: At the end of an event you might find yourself taking home a full box of sweet and salty granola bars, gramwiches or a lot of bananas.

Con: Your lunches consist of sweet and salty granola bars and gramwiches for two weeks. Plus your kids don’t like banana bread.

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Pro: You’ve become an extremely early riser!

Con:  On those rare weekends that you’re not volunteering at an event, you have a hard time sleeping in past 5am.

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Pro: You are an event expert, and answer hundreds of questions from participants and spectators all day long.

Cons: At the end of a long and tiring day, you can’t answer one simple question – where did I leave MY car?

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Pro: You make sure participants have a safe route and are skilled at traffic control at busy intersections.

Con: You are tempted to get out of your car when in a crowded parking lot to show people how to get thousands of cars to the nearest exit!

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Pro: You’ve become accustomed to hugging everyone you meet, regarding them as instant family.

Con:  Not everyone is “a hugger.”

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Pro: There’s never a shortage of emotional surges of inspiration when seeing participants complete the event.

Con: No one understands the high you have for the week after the event; not even your kids.

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Hooray! Promotion Extension!

Filing taxes is never fun, and it can take a lot out of you. So, if you need a little pick-me-up after all that math and mailing and online double checking, we have a special surprise coming this week.

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Our “Bring Your Bestie” and VIP Slumber Party promotions were set to end on April 19th, but to show our love and support for all our 3-Dayers…we are extending the promotions until April 26th! Hooray!

This means you have a six more days to take advantage of our two awesome promotions for the month. If you need another breakdown of each promotion, we have you covered there as well.

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“Bring Your Bestie”  

Recruit your friends to walk with you this year! We’ll provide a round-trip plane ticket for any out-of-town first-time walker who registers by April 26 with the code BYB17. We want to give new participants the chance to see the 3-Day magic for the first time, especially if they can do so alongside their BFFs. Send your friends to The3Day.org/Bestie to learn more, and help them sign up. This is perfect for long-distance friends who want an extra excuse to get together to walk 60 miles for a great cause.

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The VIP Slumber Party Promotion

2017 is the 15-year anniversary of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day, so one promotion wasn’t enough! We wanted to share another opportunity with you all to really get our celebration going! When you recruit two pals, you can get the VIP glamping treatment. If you recruit two first-time walkers by April 26 to join you on the 3-Day, we’ll arrange for you to have a VIP slumber party together on the event. That slumber party will include the use of a large tent that sleeps up to four people, with air mattresses and pillows, plus phone chargers, camp chairs and souvenir 3-Day pajama pants to take home for each member of your party. Talk about a party!

If you don’t want to stay at camp, you can choose a reward of two free nights at a 3-Day host hotel for the Friday and Saturday of the event, instead of the slumber party.

To get your friends on board, first get your personal recruitment link and ID, then help them register. Get all the info at The3Day.org/Refer.

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Just make sure you get moving by April 26! Have you already taken advantage of these promotions? Share your story in the comments or on social media and tag #The3Day

Meet Gwynne M., 3-Dayer and Recruiter Extraordinaire

All it takes is a little spark of inspiration to start a whole movement. If you need proof of that statement, Gwynne is the perfect example. This year will be only her second one walking in the 3-Day, and she has already single handedly recruited 25 people to her team, Gwynne’s Friends. She’s also already surpassed her fundraising minimum. And she still has more than six months until she walks the San Diego 3-Day. Imagine where she’ll be by November!

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Gwynne first became introduced to Susan G. Komen’s efforts in 2012 when her friends participated in the Race for the Cure in her honor. That same year, she had a bilateral mastectomy, finished up chemo and underwent radiation all due to a Triple Negative breast cancer diagnosis.

Four years later, in 2016, Gwynne decided to get more personally involved and signed up for the Philadelphia 3-Day. Gwynne’s Friends came back to life as a team! Shortly after signing up, however, Gwynne learned that her cancer was back, and was metastatic, Stage IV breast cancer.

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“I started treatment and my training all in the same month. We had a total of six people on our team and after completing the 24-week training program, we walked.”

With her friends by her side, Gwynne took on the 3-Day.

“I couldn’t believe the number of people that were there cheering us on. I had a catheter hanging out the side of my chest and my feet were peeling from the chemo but I managed to walk about 55 of the 60 miles. It was amazing. There was such excitement and spirit between the walkers, crew and community that you hardly realized you were walking all day.”

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She says that training was a huge credit to her success last year, especially her long weekend training walks.

“It is so much easier when you have someone to walk with. One weekend my nephews were visiting and we had them rotate and walk a mile with us and then switch. They loved it! Many of my friends would join me to walk while I was training.”

Just getting the word out made a huge difference., Gwynne said that once people knew she was walking the 3-Day, she was amazed at the amount of support, training companions and donations she received. It also made a huge difference in her personal motivation.

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“When you’re undergoing chemotherapy and the doctors are telling you that you’re terminal, having a goal to walk in a 3-Day has such a positive impact on you emotionally and physically.”

That motivation led her to sign up for the 3-Day again in 2017.

“I decided to sign up for the San Diego 3-Day. Sun, sand and the ocean. What more could you want when walking? I put the word out to my team members, and a couple of them decided to join, along with my husband.”

She utilized the “Bring Your Bestie” Promotion to gather friends from out of town as well! Though she had previously walked in Philadelphia, she used social media to encourage friends to make the trip West with her.

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“I created a video that started with a little chat about me and some photos from our 3-Day walk in Philadelphia the year before. In the video, I invited anyone who wanted to join us in San Diego. and if they couldn’t join us I asked for them to donate. Then I posted it on Facebook. I was so humbled by the outcome. I raised all my donations in one week and we now have 25 team members!”

Soon friends, cousins, sisters and sister in laws joined. And then their friends joined along with them.

“That’s what friends do,” Gwynne said simply. “They support each other. The 3-Day is family, friends, community, volunteers and LOVE!”

Walk on, Gwynne.

Note: Gwynne passed on January 19, 2018. Her family and friends continue to honor her memory by walking with her team Gwynne’s Friends. In 2019 they will joining us in New England.