Komen for the Cure 3-Day Walk

Philadelphia - 2007

Our many months of fundraising and training culminated in October 2007 with the Komen

for the Cure3-Day Event.

I worked the crew and my YaYas, Kathy Fahy, Meredith Boice, Rachel Rowe and Kathy

Nguyen, committed to walking.

Our journey is recorded in the following movie.

- E.M. Forster

Crew Day, October 4, 2007. We are introduced to our trucks (aka our homes for the next three days! Ha) and our new co-workers and friends.

Day 1, it’s 4:15am. We have prepared our trucks and are waiting for the first busload of crew to be dropped off with their gear. My truck is B/C.

My truck – before – I’m still smiling and clean! But it is HUMID today.

It’s probably about 6:00am by now, as you can see from the truck behind Rachel, us crew have been working hard, we’re full of luggage at this point and ready to spill over into Truck A. The other Yayas (from the left – Rachel, Meredith, Me and Kathy Fahy) have just arrived and are about to head over the opening ceremonies. There’s still work for me to do here. Our 5th Ya couldn’t make the walk, Kathy Nguyen’s Grandmom passed away on Weds, October 3rd. She’s spending time with her family this weekend.

Pre-Opening Ceremony

My truck – after – I’m still smiling but so gross!!! That’s my truck-mate, Tim.

Opening Ceremonies. Willow Grove Mall parking lot. The circle of women holding flags symbolizes of all the sentiments on those flags. They hold hands becoming one and face the crowd showing that together we can find a cure. Each of those women are breast cancer survivors.

The survivors holding flags lead the way for our walkers embarking on their 3-Day journey.

2,300 walkers take off on day one – some 21 miles.

The logos on our backs designated those donors who contributed $500 or more to our fundraiser. There are corporations along with dynamite individual donors.

Thank you everyone though. ALL of your contributions added up to

$19,870.75 for our team. Way to GO – that’s alotta dough!!!!!

The luggage for which my other team – Gear and Tent - were responsible. The boxes behind the letter B held pink tents like the couple you see pitched in the background. That large tent was where all 2,600 walkers and crew had meals and enjoyed live entertainment at night.

Camp was located at the Belmont Plateau just down from City Line and Belmont Avenue. This was the location for both nights.

As the walkers came in they got food and a drink, rested and then came to collect their luggage and tents. Many were just too beat so we helped them to their tent site and set up their “home” for the next two nights.

The Remembrance Tent was a peaceful place to reflect on those who have passed. There were journals inside for anyone to make entries and a tent for Philadelphia meant for the participants in our city to sign. Each participating city has their own smaller tent outside. Philadelphia was 7th out of 12 cities participating this year.

Home away from home! My yayas only stayed Friday night – I stayed both. I shared a tent with Meredith on Friday night then slept in a truck with my crew-mates on Saturday.

Poor Ya Fahy, getting her blisters tended to at O-Dark-Thirty on Saturday morning - Day 2.

Blister triage!

3-Day Camp at the Belmont Plateau

We Gear and Tent team-ers were assigned to serve food on Saturday night. We had to sterilize our hands of course…by this time I needed to sterilize the rest of me too!

Waiting for Closing Ceremony to Begin

GEAR AND TENT TEAM PHILLY 2007

The few women of gear and tent. Mo (center) and Dawn (left) – Captain and Co-Captain.

Closing Ceremonies – Day 3 – the walkers make their victory walk. You can’t see but us crew are flanking them on either side as a barrier for the crowd gathered at Ellis Preserve in Newtown Square.

After the walkers finished entering the circle, crew followed to fill in the next circle. Once we were in place, the survivors followed. Shoes are raised as an “all hail” salute to the brave women who have survived this devastating disease.

The survivors start to walk in.

The speech portion of Closing Ceremonies was thankfully short; however, this is the part where all the walking and work culminated into a wonderful announcement – Philadelphia’s Event raised 6.3 million dollars towards finding a cure. That is amazing!

Yayas for Tatas - 2007

The Rowes – Rachel, John, Jake & Hannah

Brian Snayberger & Kathy Fahy

The Sidlows – Scott, Hank & Julie

We are already committed to this event for 2008. If you are interested in becoming an

honorary Yaya for TaTas let me know –

julierhile@comcast.net

http://08.the3day.org/site/PageServer

NOTE – Both my personal page and team pages are under construction at this time!!!!

Visit the web address for my personal page – Julie:http://08.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/PhiladelphiaEvent?px=1297152&pg=personal&fr_id=1186&et=27dkRmWrSP6zfoUnn8ktRg..&s_tafId=1372

Visit the web address for my team:http://08.the3day.org/site/TR/Walk/PhiladelphiaEvent?team_id=3190&pg=team&fr_id=1186&et=3IqLihJCkGo1oZ1LCoJGsA..&s_tafId=1372