The Insider’s Guide to the 3-Day – Camp: Happy Glamping on Main Street

The Susan G. Komen 3-Day® camp is like its own little town, and just like any town, this little community pulses with life and activity on Main Street.

Pause to Remember – Before I get into all the “glamping” perks of the Komen 3-Day Main Street, I do want to spotlight one other very special part of camp: the Remembrance Tent. The reasons why we commit to the 3-Day are never far from our minds and our hearts. And yet, there’s so much going on during the event—walking, talking, photos, more walking, music, food, costumes, still walking, tents, maybe some rest in there too—and it’s easy (and good) to get caught up in all of that. But it’s also important to take a moment to stop and really reflect on the people we walk for. The Remembrance Tent is where we do that, honoring the memories of 3-Day walkers and crew members whom we have lost, as well as the loved ones in each of our lives who have been affected by breast cancer. It’s a peaceful, contemplative place, set apart from the noisy bustle of camp, where you can quietly honor those who have passed. Like so many parts of the 3-Day, it’s difficult to put the emotional impact of the Remembrance Tent into words, and I can’t encourage you strongly enough to take time to visit it.

A new white tent is displayed in each city, where you can leave messages for/about loved ones.

The white tents are put out in each new city, a traveling tribute

Take a Stroll Down Main Street

You’ve arrived at camp, set up your tent, showered, and maybe even had dinner already (well, your first dinner anyway…maybe you’ll still go in for seconds!). Before settling in for the camp show, head on over to the 3-Day Main Street, where you can:

3-Day Main Street

Feel the Love! – Like any Main Street worth its salt, the 3-Day Main Street comes complete with a post office. Did you know that your loved ones can send you mail to pick up in camp? It is truly an awesome feeling to search through the alphabetically sorted bins of envelopes and find one (or two, or ten!) with your name on it. And I will admit without shame that yes, I ASK people to send me mail. Many of my family members and friends may not know that they can send mail to me in camp, and who am I to deny them that opportunity? So yeah, I send an email out, giving them the camp mail address, and leave the rest to them (camp mail addresses are posted on the 3-Day website a couple of months before each event). Is this a shameless ploy to get mail in camp? Perhaps, but I see it more as giving them way to be with me on the 3-Day, even if they can’t be there in person. The messages of love and support that result from this small request (and, be still my heart, the hand-drawn pictures and cards from my kids!) are genuine and so, so appreciated. It’s a way for the people close to your heart to be close to you on the 3-Day.

Mail call!

Walkers finding notes and cards from loved ones

Feel Sweet – Prior to each 3-Day event, friends and relatives also have the opportunity to buy a Sweet Dreams Treat for their favorite walkers or crew members to enjoy in camp. These little chocolate goodies come with a note from the giver, and like camp mail, they are a delightful way for your supporters to show you their love.

Build Your Legacy – Legacy Pins are fun little collectibles that are very popular among the 3-Day walkers and crew members. You can visit this stop on Main Street to pick up any pins that you have earned throughout the year; at the very least, you get your Walker (or Crew) pin, but may also get pins for fundraising milestones, 5- or 10-year walker-versaries, captaining a team, celebrating being a survivor, and more!

Relaaaaaaaaax – Two words: massage chairs. Is there really anything else you need to know about that?

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

Oh massage chairs, you’re the best!

Go Shopping! – Looking for a new shirt, socks, luggage tags, or something else to commemorate your 3-Day adventures? Well look no further than the “stores” on Main Street. (And by the way, if you want to get some shopping done before you walk, look no further than our online store, Shop3Day.com.)

Lounge Around – In an earlier Insider’s Guide entry, I commented that one of my favorite parts of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day camp experience is coming together with my fellow walkers—my own teammates and also new friends I’ve met along the way—to relax and share our stories from the route. There’s no better place in camp for this kind of relaxed bonding than the 3-Day Lounge. Revamped and “super-glamped” in 2014, the Lounge is the swanky “campfire” you sit around with your friends (in ridiculously comfortable FatBoy bean bag chairs), swapping stories and enjoying delicious treats donated by local bakeries, as well as a make-your-own trail mix bar. And since pictures can give you a much better peek than my descriptions, feast your eyes below.

Ahhhhhh!

Custom mixed trail mix

So many delicious combinations!

Photo booth fun

Um, yes please!

No caption necessary!

Friends, treats, and rest for your feets!

A refreshing alternative after all that sports drink!

Evening ambiance

The 3-Day Lounge: the “star” of Main Street

Friends, we’re getting close to the end of the Insider’s Guide, with next week’s post being a “wrap-up”. It has been my pleasure to share my perspective and experience, and I am so excited to continue to enjoy your stories and insights too! Comment and subscribe to the 3-Day Blog, and share with your friends!

And if any of you are still not registered, don’t wait! The low $50 registration fee will go up (to $70) on April 7!

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

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

By E. E. Cummings

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
. i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

Who do you carry in your heart? Share this video with them.

Register today for just $50, and let the power of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day® into your heart.

A 3-Day Love Story

Ask just about any Susan G. Komen 3-Day® participant, and they’ll tell you how much they love the event. But every once in a while we hear a story of true, romantic love blooming on the Komen 3-Day.

Lea and Ryan met in high school, but didn’t know each other very well until they reconnected online 11 years later. Ryan was living near San Diego at the time, and Lea was in northern California. The long-distance flame was kindled, and their first real date was in 2005 when Ryan picked Lea up from the San Diego airport and took her and her teammates to the 3-Day Opening Ceremony (what a guy!). Lea says, “Ryan was so thrown by the emotion and sense of community that he felt at that Opening Ceremony, he instantly knew he wanted to join me next year. He was still not convinced he could walk 60 miles, so in 2006 we joined the San Diego 3-Day Crew together. We started walking together in 2007.”

Lea and Ryan on their first 3-Day together in 2006

Ryan moved back to the Bay Area in 2008, and since the 3-Day returned to San Francisco that year, they were excited to be in a city where their friends and family could come cheer them on. Little did Lea know that Ryan was even more excited that their families were near, because he was planning a special celebration for Sunday of that 3-Day weekend. On Day 3, at pit stop 3, on their 3rd 3-Day together, Ryan pulled Lea aside and proposed. “I was in shock and didn’t know what was happening until a walker screamed out, ‘Oh my God, he’s proposing!’” Lea recalls. “And rather than answer right away my first response was, ‘Have you been carrying that ring this whole time?’ Needless to say, that is one of my favorite 3-Day moments.”

Just a few miles after Ryan’s pit stop proposal

The role that the 3-Day played in Lea and Ryan’s courtship didn’t stop with Ryan’s pit stop proposal. They scheduled their wedding around the 3-Day, intending to get married the weekend before the 2009 San Francisco event. The plan was to kick off their honeymoon by walking in the 3-Day. But the 3-Day had other plans for them. “The day we put the deposit down for our wedding, we got an email that the date for the San Francisco 3-Day was moved up a weekend.”

So they made a small adjustment to the plan.

In October of 2009, Ryan and Lea started Day 1 of the San Francisco 3-Day as an engaged couple. On Day 2, they left the route to do another walk of their own – down the aisle. Then on Day 3, they came back to finish the walk as husband and wife. “It couldn’t have been any better,” Lea says.

Mr. & Mrs.

They even used the 3-Day as a focus for their wedding. They had a traditional “money dance” at the reception and all the proceeds went toward their 3-Day fundraising goals for 2010. They had a dessert bar with all pink treats, a signature cocktail called “The Pink Ribbon” and their wedding colors were pink and black.

A pink-themed reception

The “Money Dance” fundraiser was a success!

Pink treats for everyone

“We are so proud that the 3-Day is not just something that we do, it’s a part of our story.”

Sigh. Beautiful, isn’t it?

Click here to see the news story that a local station did about the happy couple. (Please note that this story is a few years old, and the registration information that the reporter shares at the end of the piece is no longer valid.)

Lea and Ryan will be celebrating their 5-year wedding anniversary this October, just a few weeks before they walk in San Diego, their tenth event together.