We walked for Carolyn
My friend and colleague Carolyn Jenkins got breast cancer. Julie - one of her other friends and colleagues - and I and decided to do the 3-Day breast cancer walk from Santa Barbara to Malibu in honor of Carolyn.
Carolyn died a week before the 2001 walk. I walked day one and day three - and went to her funeral on day two. My husband drove to Oxnard to pick me up and take me to the funeral - then drove me back that evening. I still can't even write this without tearing up, remembering.
The second year I walked - year two - and the last Pallotta Teamwork sponsored walk - the other vivid memory I have is of the day two line up.
We were all queued in up in rows at the starting point, waiting for enough daylight to begin walking. From behind us - like a wave of sound, people had started singing the Star Spangled Banner. As it rolled toward us, I got goose bumps. We started singing as it reached us and rolled over us like an ocean wave. It was the year after 911, and it was still very close to the surface for everyone.
I also remember all of the wonderful people who lined the walk every day, cheering us on and giving us little stickers and trinkets and hard candies. There was a troop of Brownies that were so sweet!
This year, Julie and I are walking again - this will be my fifth year. But I have to say, it is not the same without Pallotta Teameworks running it. Susan Komen is fine, but it doesn't have the same spirit of calling, the same feeling of comradarie, the same sense of courage.
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