Nine local women will travel to Dallas, Texas, this fall to
participate in the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk for a Cure.
The group will join former Bradford resident Tammy
Stives-Miller, now a resident of Dallas, who is their tenth team
member and their inspiration to be involved in the event, they said
recently.
The event benefits the Susan G. Komen For The Cure National
Philanthropic Trust.
Lisa Minich, spokesperson for the group, said this will be their
first time being involved in the 3-Day Walk for a Cure, although
they have all been running together for exercise for several
years.
Their friend, Stives-Miller, was diagnosed with kidney cancer
during the summer of 2003. When she came through her treatment
successfully, they all decided the walk would be a good way to help
raise funds for a worthy cause while doing something they all
enjoy.
To participate, the runners need to raise at least $2,200 per
person; their team goal is to raise $30,000, which would allow
other Bradford residents to participate if they desire. To raise
the money, they have slated a slew of fundraisers, including
monthly luncheons at their respective places of employment, bake
sales of homemade goods, a garage sale, a car wash and a bowling
fundraiser, among other events.
Once they get to Dallas the last weekend of October, each woman
will have to walk 20 miles each day for a total of 60 miles per
person, Minich explained. At night, the team makes camp outside and
then rises each morning to start the walk again.
Team member Beverly Fuoco said each woman is responsible for
bringing her own clothes, and the event organizers provide food and
shelter. They are each permitted to carry no more than a 35-pound
pack, she added.
Despite the prospect of spending three days outside, walking 20
miles each day, with none of the comforts of home, the group is
excited to participate.
“It’ll be a challenge … but there won’t be a problem doing it,”
Cathy Griffith, another team member, said.
Several local business and organizations have stepped up to the
plate and helped with outright sponsorship or assistance with their
fundraisers, Minich said, lauding Zippo Manufacturing Co., KOA
Speer, Bradford Regional Medical Center, John William European
Pastry Shop, the Custer City Drive-In, Domino’s Pizza, the Key
Club, Allegany-Limestone (N.Y.) High School and Parkview, among
others.
They have purchased and are selling silver necklaces with breast
cancer ribbon charms; each of the women is also currently wearing
one and will do so through the walk.
“We’ll be walking and thinking of them (cancer survivors and
those who have succumbed to the illness),” Minich said, as she
caressed her own silver pendant.
When asked about their state of mind upon learning their dear
friend was diagnosed with kidney cancer, the group had this to
say:
“Cancer affects all people … even the healthiest of people,”
Minich said, adding Stives-Miller always ate right, exercised and
was conscious of her physical well-being.
“We felt helpless,” Fuoco added. She went on to say, however,
Stives-Miller always put her own suffering aside for her friends’
sake, never letting them know how much she was hurting.
“More tears were shed thinking about how strong she was,” she
said.
Stives-Miller said from her home in Dallas that she was
devastated when she learned she had cancer.
“But I quickly decided I wouldn’t let it get the best of me. If
I did, then I would lose,” she said.
Stives-Miller went on to say that she told her running mates
that within six weeks of her last surgery, she would run again.
“It gave me a goal and something to fight for,” she said. And
run again she did.
“They were all there running with me,” Stives-Miller said of her
nine comrades.
The team members who met with The Era recently – Minich, Fuoco,
Griffith and Kathy Wright – all agreed they expected the walk would
be a life-changing experience.
“This will be something we carry with us for the rest of our
lives,” Minich said, as her friends added they know they will be
“touched,” “changed” and “a different person” after it is all said
and done.
“The togetherness … the inspiration of staying together and
meeting the goal,” will be the highlight for Stives-Miller, she
said.
“The biggest thing for all of us, I think,” she went on to say,
“is that we will be able to earn this money and in our hearts, even
if it helps a handful of people enjoy milestones we should all get
to enjoy in life, that in itself is reward enough.”
She said she had a friend who lost her battle with breast cancer
and was never able to see her children graduate from high
school.
“If someone who otherwise couldn’t, gets to see their kids
graduate from high school or see their grandchildren born, we know
we helped,” Stives-Miller said.
Perhaps the sentiment for the event is best summed up in the
group’s slogan for the walk – “3 Days + 10 Friends + 60 Miles = A
Lifetime of Memories and A Dream for a Cure.”
Also walking will be Roxanne Langianese, Mary Copeland, Fran
Anderson, Julie Chartreau and Terry Cook.
Anyone interested in sponsoring the team can send donations to
Minich at 44 Sherman St., Bradford, Pa., 16701, with checks made
payable to The Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk for a Cure.
