3-Day Fundraising – Making a Difference, One Bottle at a Time

Jim Hillmann knows a thing or two about being a Susan G. Komen 3-Day® walker. He has completed 28 Komen 3-Day events since 2008, including all 14 events in 2011. This year again, Jim is one of a handful of walkers participating in all seven 3-Day® events – an incredible commitment! Participating in so many walks means completing an impressive amount of fundraising, so Jim employs dozens of different tactics and strategies to reach his fundraising goals.

He shared the story behind one of his fundraising strategies: recycling for cash.

“In 2012, at the suggestion of a fellow 3-Day friend, I began raising funds through recycling CRV plastic and glass bottles and aluminum cans. Although it began slowly with my first trip to the recycling center bringing in $45, the amounts gradually grew to $100, then $150 then $200 and more each trip to the recycle center.” Jim visits his local recycling center in San Jose, California about every 5-6 weeks. “In 2012, I raised $1050, then nearly $1500 in 2013 and I have already raised nearly $700 in 2014 so far, with the goal to break $2000 for the first time. Ultimately, I would like to raise enough to fully fund one 3-Day.”

Jim shared that the key to his success with raising 3-Day funds through recycling is not any different than what makes other fundraising methods successful: building a network of supporters. For his recycling efforts, he wasn’t content to just cash in whatever ended up in his own recycle bin. “What first began as two [collection] locations at work has now grown into four work locations, multiple people at church who save their recyclables, and a network of friends who do the same. The gym I work out at even allows me to have a recycling container that I collect twice a week.”

Raising money for his 3-Day events is the biggest benefit of his recycling efforts, but it’s not the only benefit. “The super part, besides the funds raised, is that I also have the opportunity to spread more breast cancer awareness. Many people have asked why I am doing this, and asked if their help really matters even though it is only a ‘small bag’ of recyclables. When this happens, the door has been opened to tell them about our wonderful 3-Day community and all that it does for those affected by breast cancer.”

Jim has an inspiring perspective on the whole thing. “With our walks, sixty miles is a long distance to travel and we accomplish it by taking one step at a time over the course of three days, not sixty miles in one long step. I relate our walks to the recyclable fundraising, letting people know that a single given bottle may not seem like much, but bottle-by-bottle, can-by-can, they really do add up both in quantity and dollars. Through their individual gatherings, when combined with others, a huge difference is being made in people’s lives.”

We applaud Jim for his creativity and dedication to fundraising for the 3-Day. To date, he and his wonderful network of “co-collectors” have raised over $3200 total since 2012. As Jim puts it, “Not only are the streets and landfills a bit cleaner, but lives have been changed!”

Tell us about ways that you have engaged your community, and what creative fundraising strategies you have you tried!

The ABC’s of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day – Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of the ABC’s of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day®! This fun alphabet is made up of 26 people, places or things you’ll encounter while walking, crewing or volunteering all 60 amazing miles of the Komen 3-Day. Check out Part 1 (Letters A – D) here, and don’t forget to share your ideas for each letter here on the 3-Day blog or with us on Facebook. We’ll share some of our favorites next week. You can also help us spread the word about the 3-Day® by pinning these images on Pinterest. The more people who learn about the 3-Day, the more we can make a difference in ending breast cancer forever.

Why do we walk? Because everyone deserves a lifetime®.

See also: Event and Email (Don’t forget, if you’re a registered participant, you can create, manage, and send all of your fundraising emails in the Participant Center!)

The fight to end breast cancer is why we’re here. We fight for every breast cancer survivor. We fight for every new diagnosis. We fight for our daughters and our granddaughters, so they might grow up in a world where breast cancer no longer threatens the lives of those we love.

See also: Friend Finder (A wonderful tool for connecting with participants near you!)

A Grahamwich is a delicious snack passed out along the route, consisting of two graham crackers filled with peanut butter and jelly. 3-Day walkers crave grahamwiches all year long and these sweet treats are a pit stop favorite. (Don’t believe us? Check out this post on Facebook!)

On the Susan G. Komen 3-Day, you’ll meet the most amazing heroes, in all shapes and sizes. From the grandmother walking 60 miles to celebrate her 60th birthday, to the man on a motorcycle in a pink tutu honoring his wife, to the 11 year-old Youth Corps member working selflessly to support the walkers – the 3-Day brings out the hero in all of us.

The Return of 3-Day Mythbusters

The Susan G. Komen 3-Day® is a big event with a big commitment. Through all of the steps of this incredible journey—from registering, to fundraising and training, to what to expect on the event itself—we have the Komen 3-Day coaches as well as our website and handbooks to help provide information and support. But with so much to learn about the 3-Day®, we know it’s not uncommon for some details to get lost or misconstrued along the way. In a blog post last year, we dished out the truth about some common misconceptions related to the Komen 3-Day, and today we’re back to address a few more of these misunderstandings in the latest edition of 3-Day® Mythbusters.

Myth: Cell phones are not permitted on the 3-Day. It’s 2014, and we’d be pretty out of touch if this myth were true. You most certainly can have and use your mobile phone throughout the 3-Day—to take photos or video, to update your Facebook and Twitter or to touch base with teammates who are on other parts of the route. We even have phone charging stations at camp. You just aren’t allowed to use your phone while you’re walking. When in motion, your focus needs to be on the road and other walkers around you, in order for you and them to stay safe. So if you need to snap a pic of the amazing scenery and Instagram it right away, just step off the route and stop, then stash your phone in your pack and carry on when you’re done. That way, you won’t inadvertently cause a 10-walker pile-up on the route!

Myth: You’re not allowed to listen to music while walking. Back in the day, if you wanted to listen to music while you walked, your only options were to cover your ears with headphones or carry around a boombox for your beats. The 3-Day’s policy has always prohibited headphones/earbuds, simply for safety reasons – if you can’t hear what’s around you, you increase your risk of running into an obstacle or another walker. Now, however, most mobile phones can play music through built-in speakers, or can be connected to compact external speakers that are easily clipped to a walking pack. Let’s be honest: music can be a great motivator to get you through the miles, so if you can fire up your playlist without covering or plugging your ears, as long as the lyrics and volume of your tunes are not offensive to the people around you, groove away!

Myth: You must walk the entire 3 days, or nothing. The 3-Day is just that: a three-day long event, and to get the most out of it, you should certainly plan to be there from early Friday morning all the way through until after the Closing Ceremony on Sunday. But we get it, sometimes things come up—a Friday work commitment, travel conflicts, a Saturday wedding—and a walker may have to miss part of the weekend. That’s fine! We’ve even had two walkers leave during the middle of Day 2 to get married to each other, and then come back for Day 3. If you raise all your money, you are welcome to be there for the parts of the event that you can, and miss parts if you have to. Hopefully it won’t come to that, but it’s important to know that missing a few hours here or there shouldn’t hold you back from doing the 3-Day. (Note that the rules for Crew are a little different: because crew members have a designated job on the 3-Day, they are required to be on the event for all 3 days, plus the All-Crew Kick-Off on Thursday.)

Myth: The crew gets paid to work on the 3-Day events. The 3-Day does have a small paid staff who manages the events, but the majority of the on-event work—setting up camp, running the pit stops, serving food, keeping the route safe—is done by the all-volunteer crew. These amazing folks (usually around 300 people per event) commit their time and energy to making the 3-Day great, and are paid only in the smiles, high fives and heartfelt thanks of their fellow participants.

Myth: Joining the Crew is an “easy” alternative to walking. Sometimes we hear people say, “Walking 60 miles is too hard, so I’ll just crew instead.” Those folks are in for a big surprise when they find out that being a crew member is equally—or more—challenging than walking. Crew members are the first people awake in the morning and the last ones to bed at night, and are often pushed to great physical demands (long periods on their feet and heavy lifting, for example) over the course of the event. So if you do not want to walk, but are still able to give 100% of your energy to the 3-Day in a different way, then the 3-Day Crew may be a good fit for you.

Myth: The 3-Day only serves junk food. Keeping walkers well fed and hydrated is an important health objective on the 3-Day. After all, your bodies are working hard with all that walking, burning an average of 100 calories per mile. Feeding hundreds of participants across 60 miles requires logistical efficiency, so packaged snacks like chips, peanuts, granola bars and yes, those delicious PB&J grahams make sense. But you can always find healthy, fresh options to eat too. At pit stops, you can feast on things like bananas and oranges, carrots and string cheese. Breakfast and dinner are hot meals served in camp, and include salads, fresh fruit, and protein.

We hope this clears things up! If there are any other aspects of the 3-Day that you’re just not sure about, your best bet is always to call the coaches at 800-996-3DAY, or refer to your Fundraising, Training and Event Prep Handbooks on your Participant Center.

Are there any other myths that you’d like to see busted? Tell us in the comments!