On Friday, almost 3,000 walkers took off on their 60-mile journey as part of Dallas’ Breast Cancer 3-Day walk. It also was the starting line for more than 450 volunteers.
Volunteers pay $90 each for the privilege of working as a crew member, helping to set up camps, clean up behind the walkers, serve meals and provide support. But many of them already have a much larger emotional investment.
Gary West of Colleyville does it for his 43-year-old daughter, Sheri West Lewis, who died just days before she was to walk in the event in 2007.
daughter fought for 51/2 years,” West said Thursday as he helped mark a tent grid at Brookhaven College, where this weekend’s walkers will sleep between legs of their effort.
West still pauses to overcome emotion while giving details of his daughter’s illness. Lewis discovered a lump on her breast while on a 2001 business trip to New York, where she was consulting a sponsor of the 3-Day walk.
“From then until her passing, she was really involved,” said West, who has worked as a crew member since 2004. “She insisted that her mother and I get involved.”
In 2006, his daughter had chemotherapy two days before the walk.
“She walked 40 miles of the 60 during that 3-Day,” West said.
Dallas is one of 15 cities to host a Breast Cancer 3-Day walk. About 2,900 walkers have raised $2,300 each to participate in the 60-mile trek through Addison, Farmers Branch, Dallas and Richardson.
Last year, the Dallas walk raised $7.9 million. Eighty-five percent of the proceeds go to Susan G. Komen for the Cure, with 15 percent going to the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund.
The walkers will complete their 60 miles on Sunday, with a closing ceremony at Fair Park.
‘Extremely selfless’
Volunteers hand out treats along the route, offer words of encouragement and even give foot massages.
“Everybody who works crew for the Breast Cancer 3-Day is extremely selfless,” West said. “You wind up having such emotional rewards. You do it once, you’ll understand.”
The walkers who receive the support are grateful.
“They give you the energy to keep walking,” said Jill Cumnock of Frisco, who is walking for her mother, who died of breast cancer in 1981.
Laura Johnson of Saginaw said crew members help the walkers from start to finish.
“They are awesome,” she said. “They are all along the route. They are cheering us on. They are supplying us with everything we need, even if we forget something. Their emotional support is better than anything,”
Johnson is walking for a friend who has metastatic breast cancer and has been fighting for 17 years.
“I am walking for her,” she said. “I am fighting for her.”
Felicia Christian of Waxahachie said the volunteers are pleasant and show a genuine interest in the walkers’ needs.
“They have excellent volunteers out here,” said Christian, who is walking for friends and family who are survivors of the disease.
Many crew volunteers have previously walked the event, including Andrea Keller of Irving.
“This year, she’s decided to crew,” West said. “She’s getting to experience it from both sides of the garbage can.”
Keller can be found sporting a neon-green shirt identifying herself as a Sole Sisters team member, supporting both Sheri Lewis and Kristi Johnson, a sister of a fellow teacher who died earlier this year of breast cancer.
“I loved walking, but I’m much more the person who cheers you and is always excited to do different things,” Keller said. “I am so excited to be behind the scenes.”
From all over
Many volunteers are from outside North Texas, including Richard Needham of Lawton, Okla.
Needham walked the 2007 3-Day in Philadelphia with a woman he was dating who had twice had breast cancer. While that relationship did not work out, he stayed with 3-Day. Last year, he walked in Washington, D.C.
“I got hooked the first walk; to me it’s an awesome cause,” Needham said. “I want to walk or crew every city that this does.”
Like Keller, Needham was seeking a new perspective – as a volunteer.
“I know how to walk. I wanted to see what the other side of the 3-Day is like, so I decided to crew this year,” Needham said.
“I’ve always wanted to see what everything looks like, because as a walker, you come into camp and everything is all set up.”
Crew members set up large tents for dining, showers and medical support, while walkers generally set up their own two-man tents for sleeping.
The volunteers also raise additional money to help find a cure.
But not everything can be measured in dollars, West said.
“It gives one a feeling of peace, knowing that what little you are doing is hopefully going to keep my granddaughter or somebody else’s daughter or sister from going through what my daughter went through,” West said. “Everybody’s goal – who is out here working – is to be here when they finally come up for a cure for breast cancer and stop it.”
Source : www.dallasnews.com
