Friday was brutal. The temperatures were in the mid forties with a constant downpour and wind gusts of 20 mph. Our walk took us through several Atlanta suburbs with way too many hills, but with moments that will stay with us forever—a young boy offering us dry socks; a business with pink ribbons on the windows and all operations ceasing so the employees could cheer us on; Lynn arriving with doughnuts, hot coffee and a warm, dry place to change our socks. The most fun that day was eating lunch in the rain! We had on baseball caps and the challenge was to keep the hat at just the right angle to cover our food and to keep the waterfall coming off the caps from dripping into our sandwiches. Ugh, wet bread!
I reminded Jean and Kristen, on a regular basis, that they needed to thank me for refusing to camp. The 3-day staff did have a rain plan for the walkers, but even then, it was still pretty miserable for the campers.
My mantra on Friday was “homemade vegetable soup and grilled-cheese sandwiches.”Thank you, Lynn for making sure we had just that.
Saturday was a beautiful day and I was delighted to find out that none of us had webbed feet.
Once again we were routed through a NE Atlanta suburbs with very steep hills, but which left each of us with terrific memories —Jake, an English sheep dog, and his owner, a two-year breast-cancer survivor. The two of them came out so we could pet Jake and to cheer us on. School buses passed us with kids hanging out of the windows yelling encouragements and holding up pink ribbons; children and their parents coming out of their suburbs to handout candy, tissues and cheers for us.
Have I mentioned the sweep vans? They were/are our friends. They made several trips each day by the walkers to offer rides to the next stop. They are themed, decorated and equipped with balloons and bullhorns and some crazy fun people. Also there were the motorcycle and bicycle brigades that checked on the walkers and made sure that we got through some dangerous intersections without harm. We often danced down the streets with guys in kilts and some funky socks.
At one of our pit stops we were greeted by a high school cheerleading squad complete with pomp-pomps and appropriate cheers for the occasion. They were so full of pep and energy it made the next few miles a bit easier.
Tom arrived on Saturday to help Lynn and to support Jean, Kristen and me. What a cool guy. After the three of us were checked out for the day, we went to see Tent City and then to the Memory Tents. Powerful and meaningful just don’t just cover the emotions we all felt. Each of the cities that host a 3-Day have a white tent and the walkers write their reason for doing the walk on the tent.
Sunday was another beautiful Atlanta day and our route took us through some of downtown Atlanta (read, less hills). My memories will always be of the folks cheering for us: an 80+ year-old lady standing solo giving us thumbs up; A very dignified lady offering us water in her deep, deep Georgia accent; Walker Stalkers who popped up everywhere; the family who showed up with Starbucks Coffee; the little girl who gave Jean a hug; more and more dogs to pet and one very, very large cat that no one offered to pet; lines and lines of folks with noise makers encouraging us on to the next stop; young children giving us high fives (or was it low fives?); homemade signs—the list is endless. Thank you Atlanta you are one class act!
Late in the day we made our way to the Georgia World Congress Center for the final ceremony. Wow. We walked into a cheering sea of pink with one of our two banners. Laura, Todd and Makenzie made a wonderful banner that Tom and Lynn brought in to the ceremony. The three of us carried another banner that Jill Dubin, a friend of Jean’s, made for us. We looked good (okay, the banners looked good)!
The closing ceremony was phenomenal. Walkers enter the auditorium first, followed by the staff and then the survivors. As a tribute, all the walkers remove one of thire shoes and salute the survivors as they enter. It’s an experience none of us will forget.
And, now for the numbers:
- Four Women Walk raised $8,000. Thanks to each and everyone for your
contributions. We obviously couldn’t have done it without your support. - There were 3,400 walkers at the Atlanta 3-Day. That’s a lot of pink!
- The Atlanta 3-Day raised $8.3 million and that will go towards the Foundation’s pledge of $1 billion.
We’ve all been asked why. Why not just write a check? The obvious answer is that none of us are in position to write a $2,200 check let alone one for $8,000, and I believe that each of us wanted to do something larger than ourselves.
None of us did it just to have bragging rights, but now we can honestly say: been there, done that and have the T-shirt to prove it.
Thank you again and again.
Ta, ta for now,
Peggy
