Tag Archives: 2013

A Stormtrooper with a Cause

Kevin D assembles his walking gear on the Twin Cities 3-Day, dressing as a Stormtrooper from Star Wars on his fight to end breast cancer.

Kevin D. assembles his walking gear on the Twin Cities 3-Day

“I’m Eileen’s husband,” says Kevin this morning as he assembled his walking gear before sunrise. “Oh, and I’m a Stormtrooper,” he adds in a nonchalant way. It’s true. I had noticed him stride out of the Opening Ceremony two days ago in his full Star Wars gear, highlighted with a pink and white armband with a dedication to his wife. At first I thought the highly recognizable Star Wars costume was simply another fun way to walk the 60-mile route, but this was a dedication to Eileen who passed away in November 2012. They had met through the 501st, an international Star Wars organization, and both had matching Stormtrooper costumes and often worked with charities to brighten the mood and raise much needed funds.

Kevin D emerges from his pink tent to walk Day 3 of the Twin Cities 3-Day in honor of his wife

Kevin D. emerges from his pink tent to walk Day 3 of the Twin Cities 3-Day in honor of his wife

“We actually met for the first time in 2006, but she didn’t know who it was because I was in a Star Wars costume!” laughed Kevin. “We met officially one year later.” He flashed the photograph of him–very unrecognizable–in one of the variations of the costumes with Eileen smiling beside him, an arm wrapped around the white hardened plastic, unknowing that this would be her future husband. “I proposed to her in a friend’s Darth Vader’s suit!” He also confirmed that with a picture. (He did take off the mask to propose.) The memories, however, brought back tears, and Kevin stood in a field of disassembled pink tents remembering the legacy of his wife.

Twin Cities 3 Day Storm Trooper Breast Cancer Awareness Star Wars

Kevin D. embraces a neighboring walker at camp on the Twin Cities 3-Day as they remember his wife Eileen

“Eileen started walking the Susan G. Komen 3-Day® many years ago,” explained Kevin. “She has an aunt who is a breast cancer survivor, and she became a strong supporter of the Komen 3-Day over the past several years. This is my first 3-Day, and I’m doing this in her honor. I want to continue to do more around the country.” As we talked, a participant who had been tenting nearby exclaimed that she had known Eileen, and the two embraced remembering this extraordinary woman. The 3-Day offers much more than an opportunity to help others by raising money for breast cancer research; it offers the chance to heal, and we see this over and over as participants who have lost friends, family, wives, husbands, mothers, daughters, aunts, and grandmothers pick up a flag, a banner, a symbol of their loved one and step out onto the street to honor a wonderful life.

Good luck to the Twin Cities 3-Day walkers today in the heat and through the Closing Ceremony!

in memory breast cancer star wars storm trooper

Kevin’s armband dedicates his walk to his wife

Kevin as a stormtrooper moves out onto the route after the Opening Ceremony on the Twin Cities 3-Day, to the delight of children and adults on the route breast cancer

Kevin as a stormtrooper moves out onto the route after the Opening Ceremony on the Twin Cities 3-Day, to the delight of children and adults on the route

A Special Stop in the Twin Cities

The Shinar family stops at Pit Stop 1 on Day 1 of the Twin Cities 3-Day fight to end breast cancer

The Shinar family stops at Pit Stop 1 on Day 1 of the Twin Cities 3-Day

“When I was young,” recalled Rob Shinar, “my mother changed hairstyles often. As I child, I didn’t really know anything had been wrong until much later.” Rob is accompanying his father and sister today on Day 1 of the Susan G. Komen Twin Cities 3-Day, a 60-mile journey to raise funds to help end breast cancer. “I thought everything was fine until I got a call at work. My dad called. Her breast cancer had returned 20 years later and was in her bones and lungs.” Rob and his sister Ally joined their father, John, today as he is walking in the Twin Cities. John has dedicated himself to walking all 14 events this year in honor of his wife, Martha, and to help find a cure for the cancer that took his wife.

John and Rob Shinar walk on Day 1 in the Twin Cities 3-Day, fight to end breast cancer

John and Rob Shinar walk on Day 1 in the Twin Cities 3-Day

On Day 1, the route here in the Twin Cities wraps around Lake of the Isles, and John, Ally, and Rob, along with other family and friends stopped at Pit Stop 2, gathered a bouquet of pink flowers that had been dropped off previously, and walked near the route to honor their wife and mother at Lakewood Cemetery. “Martha and I met in college in Michigan,” John responded when I asked him about her. “She was beautiful and she didn’t think so. You know the type?” John smiled. I knew. You can easily get a sense of who people are by how others talk about them. When I listened to John talk about Martha, I knew exactly who she was and how she lived. “Ally and Rob. Look at them. They’re just the same. There is a lot of Martha in them.”

John Shinar Twin Cities 3-Day Martha Shinar

John places pink flowers in memory of his wife Martha on the Twin Cities 3-Day

The Twin Cities are hot today, and John and his two children placed the pink flowers in the shade of Martha’s memorial and embraced. It was a special stop for a wonderful woman. The three spent some time together at the site and then made their way back to the route. “I walk because everyone deserves a lifetime,” says John. “I will walk, I will run, I will ride. I will not rest until a cure has been found.”

Coincidence or Destiny?

Christa C. stops on the route on Day 3 of the Chicago 3-Day

Christa C. stops on the route on Day 3 of the Chicago 3-Day

Here on the Susan G. Komen 3-Day®, I learned very quickly that I needed to be ready with a camera sometime between 6 and 7 o’clock for a very special event: The Last Walker. While normally the hero of an event like this is the first walker, Dr. Sheri reminds us at The Opening Ceremony that “this is a walk, not a race.” In that spirit, the last walker is celebrated like a returning warrior, encouraged by the entire camp rising to its feet, cheering, clapping.

Last night’s grand entrance of Christa C. from Chicago brought the participants streaming to the flagpole to the point that it was difficult to find my usual position for a photograph. Christa, a 7-month survivor of breast cancer herself, was accompanied by motorcycle-riding Route Safety Crew Member Karen R., also from Chicago. Why the escort? “I saw Christa at about Mile 15 today,” Karen almost yelled in my ear over the chanting crowd. “I noticed her shirt, which looked too familiar. Then I noticed her shoes. I asked her, ‘Where did you get those?’ She responded that she bought them from another unknown breast cancer survivor at an estate sale in Chicago. They were mine!” Christa, in her jungle safari hat with pink streamers agreed. “When I bought them from the estate sale, I wanted to wear them in honor of this unknown breast cancer survivor. I had no idea she’d be protecting me on the route!”

Karen R. from Chicago and Route Safety Crew embraces Christa C. who bears the flag of the Chicago 3-Day at the end of Day 2

Route Safety Crew member Karen R. from Chicago embraces Christa C. who bears the flag of the Chicago 3-Day at the end of Day 2

Call it what you want. Coincidence. Luck. Fate. Destiny. For Christa and Karen in Chicago, two strangers have again been brought together by a common cause, a touching and recurring theme on the Komen 3-Day Series.