The Avon Walk for Breast Cancer + Me

Waaaaaaaaay back in 2001 my friend Terri and I decided it might be fun to participate in the Avon Breast Cancer 3 Day Walk. Covering close to 60 miles over 3 days was quite the experience. The Avon walk was supposed to begin in Santa Barbara and end in Malibu, but organizational issues caused some re-routing. In reality, we ended up basically walking in circles around my hometown of Oxnard, CA.

The locale  didn’t matter at all in the end. The experience of the walk was so much more than that. We laughed endlessly trying to set up our tent the first night. We had sweet breast cancer survivors buying Diet Cokes for US to say thanks for walking. We cried a million tears. And then we were hooked on the Avon walk – the whole amazing thing.

The event morphed into the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer the following year and we decided to give our donors a break. We signed up to crew the event and somehow landed ourselves as team leaders for the traffic and security team. That was a whole different kind of adventure, but we survived and returned the next year with friends and family.

We continued to crew the Avon walk for several years, took a year or two off (still volunteered because we couldn’t let it go entirely) and then returned with even more friends and family in tow. These days we fill our own rest stop team in addition to lending my dad out to be the event’s caboose – a job I’m pretty sure he will NEVER give up.

Between all those years crewing, 4 of us walked the Avon walk 2010 in San Francisco walk. Terri, my sister Danielle, our friend Kristina and I had quite the experience there. The day one course was longer than 26.2 miles it was supposed to be and we struggled a bit (some of us more than others) but I like to think that it didn’t ruin the experience at all. Day 2 was also difficult but crossing that finish line 39.3+ miles later was so awesome – a feeling that never fails to bring on the waterworks.

This year we decided we wanted to tackle walking again and chose Charlotte, NC. My sister isn’t able to join us because she will be 8 months pregnant by the time the walk rolls around and I’m kind of sad about that, but (super excited about my new niece!) so she’s forgiven. Some of you will remember that I walked pregnant in 2010 but there’s a pretty significant difference between 11 weeks pregnant and 32. ::wink::

So while Dani is busy growing a baby, the rest of us are planning fundraisers and asking everyone we know to help in any way they can. I’m hoping that some of you in blog land are also able to help us out in reaching our fundraising goal for the Avon walk – if not with a donation then at least by sharing this post? It’s all very much appreciated!

Want to donate to the Avon Walk? Click on the graphic below or the one in my sidebar to do it today. Prefer to donate by check? Let me know and I will send you the info to do so!

Oh, and PS? If you follow this blog on , you’ll see that I’m offering a very special crocheted incentive for donations of $25 or more – so be sure to jump over there, like my page if you don’t already and check it out!