2022 Dallas/Fort Worth 3-Day Crew Impact Award Winner

Join us in congratulating our 2022 Dallas/Fort Worth 3-Day Crew Impact Award winner, Paullin J.! Paullin has participated in 19 Susan G. Komen 3-Day events over 17 years and has raised over $35,000 in her lifetime.

What was your inspiration to do your first 3-Day?

I have two older sisters who have had breast cancer, and I’ve lost a few friends to it, as well. I attended a 3-Day Closing Ceremony in 2004 in which my oldest sister had walked and I got hooked! It was a very emotional ceremony that brought to light how important this fight to find the cures is.

What has brought you back to the 3-Day year after year?

I have made really wonderful friends who have returned to crew with us year after year. Some are from other states, so I always look forward to seeing them each year. The events are such fun and so meaningful. Participating in the 3-Day is the one good thing that I do for myself each year.

What is your favorite aspect of crewing the 3-Day?

My favorite part is seeing my “3-Day family” who are such caring compassionate people who find this effort as important as I do. We work hard, but play just as hard as well. It’s a very meaningful experience ? hard to explain to others who have not shared it. It’s three days of truly being in a kind and caring world.

What is your best advice to anyone crewing the 3-Day?

Come prepared to work and play hard, and to experience all the emotions that you will have. It’s very rewarding.

What’s a fun fact about you?

I was known in my family as the “little red caboose” ? youngest of four girls.

What are the most important lessons you’ve learned on the 3-Day?

I have learned how important it is to find better treatment alternatives, and hopefully the cures, for breast cancer. It’s imperative that we continue to support this effort and to raise awareness and money to make this happen.

One of Paullin’s teammates provided this brief testimonial as to why she deserves the Crew Impact Award:

“Paullin is such a great teammate. She’s always there to pitch in and get the job done. Paullin and her sister Lucy welcomed my daughters and I to the Pit Stop 1 team in Atlanta years ago and we have been friends ever since. As a walker it was always a joy to see her at the pit stop cheering us on to the next Komen mile. As a teammate she is always such a great support to all of us.” —Steve S.

Thank you, Paullin, for your incredible dedication to our Crew, and to the Susan G. Komen 3-Day! Stay tuned to our blog for the last 2022 Crew Impact Award Winner, coming up in San Diego. You can check out our other Crew Impact Award Winners here.

Dallas/Fort Worth 3-Day Route Preview

The Dallas/Fort Worth 3-Day is back after three years! Walkers, crew and volunteers will not be disappointed as this year’s route has some wonderful sights and scenes to be enjoyed over our three-day journey. Don’t forget when you’re out walking to take pictures, post them on your social media platforms and tag us using #DFW3Day for a chance to be featured in the 3-Day social feeds!

We are so excited to reunite the Pink Bubble at the Hyatt Regency in Dallas. This hotel is not only where we’ll start the route on Days 1 and 3, but also where the Opening Ceremony and Honor Ceremony will be held, as well as 3-Day Main Street and everything it has to offer!

Day 1 will start off with an exciting and emotional Opening Ceremony where our breast cancer survivors and those living with breast cancer will lead us out onto the route. Once departed from the hotel, we can expect gorgeous views of the Dallas skyline right off the bat. We’ll head into the Oak Lawn neighborhood and walk on and off its Turtle Creek Trails. Next, we’ll pass by the Dallas Country Club before we wander into University Park. Here we’ll cheer on the Mustangs as we pass Southern Methodist University! We’ll start winding down the day with some amazing photo opportunities, passing the Dallas Museum of Art, and the famous Giant Eyeball Sculpture!

Day 2 will start with a fun bus ride to the beautiful city of Fort Worth! We are so excited to bring the 3-Day back to Fort Worth and can’t wait for you to see this day’s beautiful route. The drop-off and pick-up point will be the same, with a bus ride taking participants back to the Hyatt Regency in Dallas after completing the route.

We’ll start our journey in Fort Worth seeing Baylor Medical Center. Be sure to take out your phones and cameras, because next up is Magnolia Avenue! It’s a hip, fun and picturesque street filled with restaurants and shops galore. The photo ops don’t stop there, because next up is the Fort Worth Water Gardens. We’ll then pass the Bank of America Tower and Farrington Field before reaching the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens, as seen in the photo above. We’ll end Day 2 at Trinity Park, where buses will take us back to the Hyatt Regency for dinner and our Honor Ceremony.

Day 3 will start from the hotel as we did on Day 1, exploring more of what Dallas has to offer. First up on our last day together is the Dallas Farmer’s Market! Then we’ll make our way onto the Santa Fe Trailway, where we’ll spend most of our morning.

Walkers will then get to see Dallas’ beautiful White Rock Lake before heading into the neighborhood of Swiss Avenue. Our final miles together will include Dallas’ Main Street Garden Park and visiting the Giant Eyeball Sculpture one last time before arriving at the Finish Line Festival at Reunion Tower for our memorable Closing Ceremony.

We’re so excited to reunite for the Dallas/Fort Worth 3-Day! Will you be joining us? Let us know in the comments. Don’t forget to stay tuned for our route preview of the San Diego 3-Day coming soon!

Meet Team Independent: A Family Affair on the Dallas/Fort Worth 3-Day

The 3-Day becomes like a family for many in our community, bringing people from all walks of life together in the fight for a world without breast cancer. Some even bring their own personal family and friends along with them to the 3-Day. When the 3-Day family becomes one with your own, magical and amazing memories are made.

If you need any inspiration to invite your family to join your 3-Day team this year, you can look no further than Melissa L. and Team Independent in Dallas/Fort Worth. Their team of family members and supporters is the perfect example of incorporating your own motivation and family love into your 3-Day journey.

Everyone from her daughter Alex and her husband David to nieces, her sister-in-law, and her nephew have all joined Melissa on Team Independent over the years. In fact, Alex has continued to walk while attending college, graduate school, and having multiple children. Melissa’s nephew Becket was a Youth Corps member who is looking forward to walking his first 3-Day this year. To say the 3-Day has become a family affair for Melissa is quite the understatement!

After years of walking and crewing with her family, Melissa is full of tips, tricks and memories to help you make the most of your own 3-Day experience. Whether you walk with friends, family or solo, she is a well of information. We’ll let her take it from here…

How did you first find your way to the 3-Day family?

I initially heard about the 3-Day back in 2004 on a radio commercial. I was five years from my diagnosis of triple negative breast cancer and my daughter Alex was in high school then.

However, we didn’t fully jump into the Pink Bubble until 2007. Alex was in college and my husband was our “walker stalker.” My husband is an avid cyclist and saw the Route Safety Crew riding their bikes, which got him interested. He jumped onto Route Safety in 2008! He enjoyed being part of the crew and couldn’t understand why I hadn’t joined the 3-Day crew yet, too. So, in 2010, I joined him on Route Safety with the provision that he would walk with us in 2011. I have to say that Route Safety was great fun, but it was so much harder than being a walker for me! So, David walked in 2011 for the first time and he has been a walker ever since!

We always walk in Dallas/Fort Worth. We love supporting our hometown and hosting out-of-town team members!

What are your tips for walking and participating with your own family?

Know everyone’s pace and capabilities and use the buddy system with teenagers. Empower everyone to stick to their pace and avoid injury both on training walks and on the event.
At the 3-Day, make a schedule to meet for meals or activities, so more experienced walkers can help and encourage the new walkers.
Make fun shirts and pink bling! Matchy-matchy is the way to go! Be “family proud.” ?
Train together. Training walks are a great way to unplug and spend time together. It’s amazing how much you can learn about nieces and nephews when you leave electronics at home!

What are some of your best memories from the 3-Day?

Being a long-term part of the 3-Day family, I was asked to speak at the camp show in 2017 and David also spoke at the Opening Ceremony that year. We were both proud to take an active role in sharing our story with our pink family.

Then in 2018, my husband and I walked with our daughter and teenage nieces. Our nephew was on Youth Corps in the same year. It was great to experience the 3-Day through their fresh eyes. We held up on Day 3 so we could all cross the finish line together! We were so proud of those teenagers!

That year was eventful, too! In 2018 we were evacuated from camp because of a severe thunderstorm. Since David and I are avid backpackers, we secured our tent before vacating and after the storms passed, we jumped back in our tent and it was warm and dry. It was seriously so impressive to watch the Susan G. Komen and event staff manage the crew and walkers to keep us safe and then to get us back to sleep before we had to walk on Day 3. Well done everyone!

In general, though, the best memories come from the friends we have made walking thousands of miles on training walks and on event.

What does “commitment” mean to you?

Commitment means standing strong with our pink family of survivors, co-survivors and the loving and dedicated family and friends of those who continue to fight for those we have lost. Commitment means no matter what else life brings our way — death of parents, serious illnesses, welcoming our son-in-law and then welcoming grandsons — we keep putting one foot in front of the other and we keep raising awareness and money to find the CURE!

What are your 2020 3-Day plans?

2020 once again finds David and I walking in Dallas/Fort Worth. Our daughter, Alex, will be a 20-mile walker as she will be giving birth to her second son before the event this year! Our nephew Beckett will be a first-time 3-Day walker this year and our youngest twin nephews are going to apply for Youth Corps! I’ve challenged myself to raise $12,000 this year. It’s a personal bold goal, but I think I can do it! Nothing can stop us!

You can join Melissa and Team Independent in Dallas/Fort Worth in November, or the rest of our 3-Day family at our other 2020 cities by signing up on our website!