Tag Archives: breast cancer walk

Congratulations to Stephanie C., the Philadelphia 3-Day Milestone Award Winner!

Congratulations to Stephanie C., the Susan G. Komen Philadelphia 3-Day Milestone Award Winner! The 2014 Philadelphia 3-Day is Stephanie’s 7th 3-Day, after having done her first 3-Day in Philadelphia in 2006. Stephanie has also crewed one time in Philadelphia in 2012, an experience that she really enjoyed, noting, “I was on trash clean-up and I loved it.”

Over the years, Stephanie has raised over $135,000; an incredible amount that has no doubt helped change many lives. What’s one of Stephanie’s fundraising tricks? “Do something that is FUN! I hold a golf outing each year and each year I have been able to increase sponsorship fees because I ensure my guests enjoy the day. I now have a following that I believe I will be able to sustain as long as I have the energy,” Stephanie said. Stephanie started hosting the golf outings in 2009, and they end up being big fundraisers for her, sometimes netting more than $20,000.

Like many others who embark on their 3-Day journey, Stephanie joined the 3-Day after a friend who had been touched by breast cancer asked her to walk. “My motto is always that I will try something once and if I don’t like it I don’t have to do it again. I got injured on my first 3-Day in 2006, so I waited two years to walk and my inspiration since then has been all those that have been afflicted by this dreaded disease,” said Stephanie.

As a seasoned 3-Dayer, what is it about the 3-Day that keeps Stephanie coming back? Stephanie describes the moment she knew was coming back when “survivors walked into Villanova stadium after my first 3-Day. I had trained and trained and trained and it was not real until I looked around as all the participants took off their sneakers to pay tribute to the survivors who had the strength to do the walk. It was a humbling and overwhelming experience and even after six walks – I still cry.” (So do we, Stephanie.)

When asked to share her best advice for those new to the 3-Day family, Stephanie said to never underestimate the importance of stretching, and above all, to have fun. “The most important thing is to have fun. I talk to new people and enjoy my surroundings (especially when walking in new places). Anyone who is out there walking is blessed and I am thankful that God has given me the strength and tenacity to make the trek each year. Sixty miles is nothing compared to what those that are battling cancer deal with.”

After raising $135,000 and walking over 360 miles total, Stephanie has one more thing to tell you. “Remember – you make a difference. No matter how small – it adds up to be immense,” she said. We couldn’t agree more.

Meet the Seattle 3-Day Coaches

Every Susan G. Komen 3-Day® event has a core team of three coaches, each of whom plays a different role in helping our walkers and crew members prepare for the Komen 3-Day. For months, these dedicated staffers have been having personal conversations with walkers to help them with their training and fundraising, have hosted dozens of local events to bring participants together and build a community of encouragement, and have organized and inspired the amazing team of crew captains and crew members.

Let’s meet the coaches for the Seattle 3-Day®!

Aubrey Cushing – Seattle Local Events Coach

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Aubrey at Aubree’s!

Describe your job in 10 words or fewer. – “Arranging events and surprises to keep excitement around every corner!”

We’re a couple weeks from the Seattle event. What’s a typical day like for you these days? – “Lots of emotions, emails, phone calls, confirmations, excitement and anticipation. I’m finalizing cheering stations, camp entertainment and a few surprises!”

What are 3 things that we didn’t know about you? – “1) In addition to Washington, I have lived in California, Montana, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Maine and Florida; 2) I’m often heard singing my sentences…with jazz hands! 3) I’m obsessed with the ocean, trees and tacos.”

 

Paula Hultman – Seattle Participant Coach

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Paula always stops for a passionately pink fur buddy!

Describe your job in 10 words or fewer. – “I provide information, and receive inspiration from our 3-Day community.”

We’re a couple weeks from the Seattle event. What’s a typical day like for you these days? – “B.U.S.Y! I handle a lot of donations-related matters for participants, and share my fundraising experience and expertise whenever I hear from someone working toward reaching their goal. I think my favorite calls are from first-time walkers, because I remember my first 3-Day pre-event jitters! I can tell them what it’s like to walk 20 miles a day, shower in a truck, and use porta-potties for 3 days, but I can’t prepare them for how the 3-Day will make them feel! Every veteran walker knows what I mean when I say the 3-Day experience is indescribable.”

What are 3 things that we didn’t know about you? – “1) I am a Disneyland junkie, and can point you to any number of ‘hidden Mickeys’ within the park; 2) My husband and I were chosen to be participants on The Amazing Race in 2004, after the casting director met us at the 3-Day in Los Angeles. Sadly, we had to decline the offer due to work schedules. It was our 15 seconds of fame! 3) My secret talent is the ability to tie a cherry stem into a knot with my tongue.”

 

Jon Lueders – Seattle Crew & Volunteer Coordinator

susan g. komen 3-day breast cancer walk meet the seattle coaches jon

Jon meeting his sweet newborn niece

Describe your job in 10 words or fewer. – “I am the support system for all things crew-related.”

We’re a couple weeks from the Seattle event. What’s a typical day like for you these days? – “A typical day involves reacting to many changes that come along in our run up to the event. This mostly involves keeping crew captains informed and being around when the inevitable questions and technical issues pop up.”

What are 3 things that we didn’t know about you? – “1) I once had a car catch fire while I was driving it; 2) I slept with a stuffed animal on my bed from childhood through college (including my away track meets). 3) I have a brand new baby niece (1 day old as I write this).”

 

Going to be at the Seattle 3-Day? Come meet coaches Aubrey and Paula at two special meet-and-greets, on Friday and Saturday in camp, 6-7 p.m., in the 3-Day Lounge.

 

 

Hashing Out #Hashtags with #The3Day

Remember the old days, when the pound sign was just a way to indicate a number? How times have changed. These days, that little crisscross symbol has an entirely new function and a new name: a hashtag.

susan g. komen 3-day breast cancer walk blog hashtag word cloud

Created at www.tagxedo.com

What are Hashtags? – Put simply, hashtags are identifiers that are used to group together posts on social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) that relate to similar topics. Say you want to go onto Twitter and find/follow all of the posts about the Super Bowl. You can search for #superbowl, and any public posts that include that identifier will show up in your search results. Unlike a full internet search, where you would go to a search engine like Google or Yahoo and search for the term “Super Bowl,” then get links to a bunch of websites, instead, you search for a hashtag within a specific site. The results for #SuperBowl in Twitter will be different than the results in Instagram.

A Secondary (and Less Functional) Use of Hashtags – Incidentally, hashtags have also taken on a secondary purpose: punchline. Often now, you’ll see people post about some topic, then to punctuate the underlying emotion, or add an afterthought or meta commentary about the post, they include a hashtag. For example, you could post a picture of your smiling, food-covered toddler on Instagram with the caption, “We’re pretty sure she liked the spaghetti! #bathtime #laundrytimetoo”. You say something with the post, then add a little extra commentary with hashtags. In cases like this, the intent of the hashtag is not to group your post with other posts of the same topic, but to quickly and succinctly add a funny, poignant or impactful gist to your comment.

The Possibilities are Limitless – Anyone can make a hashtag, but there are a few rules and practices that go along with creating a hashtag: letters and numbers are okay, but no spaces or punctuation (except dashes and underscores); capital letters can be used to show separation between words without affecting the function of the hashtag (i.e., #SesameStreet and #sesamestreet are seen as identical in the eyes of the internet, but the former might look a little nicer); try to keep each hashtag short and to-the-point; using too many hashtags can dilute the impact of your post, so choose wisely. But beyond that, the possible hashtags you could come up with are boundless as the World Wide Web itself.

Soooo…What Does This All Have to Do With the 3-Day? – As you (hopefully) have noticed, the 3-Day has been using hashtags in its posts all year to pinpoint its place in the social media space. Hashtag #The3Day has been all over Twitter, Instagram and Facebook as a way to identify and group together posts about our event—ones that come from us, as well as posts that come from our followers and supporters. Aside from the primary #The3Day hashtag, we also have hashtags for each individual event (#MI3Day, #TC3Day, #PHL3Day, #SEA3Day, #ATL3Day, #DFW3Day and #SD3Day). Hashtags allow you (and us) to easily browse through our social media platforms to find other people who are talking about the 3-Day. Or should we say #The3Day.susan g. komen 3-day breast cancer walk blog hashtag location specific

Instagram Photo Challenges – One specific hashtag-driven activity that the 3-Day has started is an on-event photo challenge for each of the seven 3-Day events. Be sure to check out our Instagram @Komen3Day to play along!

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