Christy's Crew Update!

Things with Christy’s Crew and our preparation for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in May have started to kick into high gear again so check my blog to hear more about our progress over the coming weeks! The big kick off started on Sunday at the Iron Butterfly Health Club here in Victor where we started our official training.

It feels so good to get moving again and get my butt back in gear and take off this weight that I have struggled with over the last few years. It is so interesting to me how being a part of a group like this can touch so many different aspects of your life.

This morning I was e-mailing a member of the crew talking about self image issues and the relation to our heath and why doing the walk means so much to me on that front. My family health history isn't pretty. Last fall I had all my blood work done by my primary care doctor and lets just say, I didn't escape the health issues my family has dealt with for years. My cholesterol just stinks...my weight stinks...my blood pressure is just okay. Over the holidays I returned to her and she got on my ass again. I told her I was doing the walk and I would lose some weight and try to make some of these issues right. She gave me the whole "yeah right, you told me that before." and said she would see me in February. I know what she was trying to do...and damit, I am going to prove her wrong. I am. I have seen too much and experienced too much since starting Christy's Crew in August that I am not going to let her be right. I have lost 17 lbs so far and hope to lose at least 30 more before walk weekend. Mark my words here....I WILL DO THIS.

You can see I added a ticker to the bottom of this blog. If I keep on the scheduled walk training program, not including the cross training Wednesday's which are times not distances, I will have walked 440 miles by walks end. Think about that. That is like walking from Rochester to Fort Wayne, Indiana. That is a long way to go, but I WILL DO THIS.

As I ran on the treadmill today thinking about our team meeting on Sunday while running my butt off I also realized how easy it is to forget what this whole experience is about. You get so caught up in fundraising, and transportation, and t-shirts, and training, that you forget the whole picture.

This isn't about who wants to do what fundraiser and who doesn't. This isn’t about the color of the t-shirts, or how many TV’s the bus will have on it on our way down.

This is about all the approximately 500 women that found out TODAY they had breast cancer. This is about all of the millions of people who have battled this disease before us...including Chris' Great Grandma who lost her battle, and survivors like my Aunt Debbie, Kathy Parisi a friend of one of our good friends that we have come to know over the last 3 years, and our friend Dave's Mom, Donna Pitts. This is about people like Christy, and all of the other current breast cancer patients we have met in the last 5 months. This is about my friend’s daughters, my nieces, my future daughter-in-laws, and hopefully someday granddaughters. This is about 4000 women (and some men too!) coming together in our nationals capital for 3 days with ONE goal...A CURE.

Christy's Crew will raise at least $30,600.00 by the time we hit DC in 110 days. All of that money will come from people and companies that united with us, who believed in us, who believed in our cause. It is about 17 women from the small city of Rochester going to our capital to make a difference....we have already done that in so many ways. We have touched so many lives along the way, and all of us on the crew have been touched in one way or another.

It is so easy to get so caught up in everyday "stuff" that we lose the big picture. I am thankful that today I came to this realization. For me. For my friends. For the crew. We will raise the money we need to...we will. We have always done so much more than we ever thought we would with everything the crew has set their mind on....we will do so with our fundraising too.

Life is too short to worry about small stuff. If only we could ask the approximately 110 people that died today of breast cancer what they thought about the small stuff in their short lives.

We all know what they would tell us.

We need a cure. Now.

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I didn't write this with the intentions of trying to get more donations, but since we could really use some help, I thought I would insert my shameless plea for donations anyway. Christy’s Crew needs to raise about $11,000 more dollars in the next 110 days (about $100.00 a day!), so we can use all of the help we can get!

If you are reading this and have made a donation to my walk fund already, THANK YOU. I can’t say thank you enough. If you are reading this and can make a donation, I thank you too. Please either mail a check made out to "Avon Walk for Breast Cancer" to Christy's Crew, PO Box 116, Victor, NY 14564, or go online to www.christyscrew.com and make a donation online through the Christy's Crew Avon Walk for Breast Cancer team page. Just remember if you make your donation online that all of the money all goes to the same place, and I have met my required $1800.00 goal to participate already, so please make your donation to a team member that has not raised their required $1800.00.

THANK YOU!!!