Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk

Location: San Jose, CA
Distance: a little less than 5K
Walking time: around 45 minutes
Jo, Teresa, Tara, Julie, Lisa






We started a grass roots team of employees of King Library and their friends and family to walk in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer 5K walk in San Jose. I dedicated the walk to my friends Paula (one of our hikers) and Sheryl in Sacramento. The team was named "Walk With the King" and we raised over $4,300 dollars of which almost $2,500 was raised by the Santa Cruz contingency made up of Jo, Teresa, Tara, Lisa and Julie.

The walk started at 9:00 on Saturday and the group met at 7:45, so it was an early morning over the hill for us. Jo, Teresa and I rode the Highway 17 bus and Lisa and Tara drove. We all showed up in various levels of pink, but the crowning glory was when my colleague Carole showed up with pink rubber crowns inscribed with "Walk with the King". The crowns were very helpful in spotting team members in the crowd of 7,000 walkers.

There was a brief aerobic warm up which all the Santa Cruz gals participated in while my San Jose colleagues watched bemused. We were ready to party and have a good time. I had filled out a square dedicating my walk to Sheryl and Paula. Everywhere were folks dressed in pink. Survivors were identified by Olympic looking medals. The spirits were high and we were through the start line a little before 9:00 a.m.

The route followed the river down to the Children's museum. There were volunteers along the way to cheer us on and hand out water at various spots. The walk went very quickly and everyone was surprised when we had reached the finish line by 9:45. (I later found out the walk wasn't quite 5K).

We went to some booths - tried hula hooping and ate some fruit and then jumped into Lisa's car to head over the hill for our second hike of the day in Santa Cruz.



But, first things first. The morning walk made us work up an appetite, so we decided to make our first stop Auntie Mame's in Scotts Valley for breakfast. I had my favorite corned beef hash and eggs with fresh biscuit and gravy. Yum! Now, we were pleasantly stuffed and ready to walk.



It had been a fun morning. I've never participated in a walk like this before and will definitely do it again. The energy of the walkers and survivors was great. It is such an important cause and one that is close to my friends and thus my heart.

Our fundraising far surpassed my expectations. It was a great experience.

Other photos from the hike can be seen at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/SJSUNorwegians


Lessons Learned: Grass roots effort can work. People's generosity is quite surprising. Often those who have the least give the most.