Walking for Breast Cancer

The Madhatters Send Metty to the Avon Breast Cancer 3-day Camp


You may have heard of the Avon fund-raiser. It’s now in its 3rd year in Atlanta and has raised millions for breast cancer worldwide together with 3-day walks in Los Angeles ,New York, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, and San Francisco. The Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University and Grady Memorial Hospital received $15.3M from this fund last year. So it’s seems like a worthy cause considering I had a personal friend and medical school classmate who have succumbed to it and several friends are still fighting valiantly to conquer it, and yet some have triumphed and completely vanquished the disease, thanks to new treatments and understanding of the importance of early detection and education.

Well, I’m not much of a goody-2-shoes but walking 60 miles for 3 days from Lake Lanier to Atlanta and sleeping in tents at night and having catered meals and massage from volunteers and foot care from podiatrists and hot showers from a truck with all the complimentary Avon products you can use sounded like an adventure to me. So I signed up on the spot and only realized too late that walking my 3 miles on Buice Road does not even come a teeny bit close to walking 20 miles a day for 7 hours over hills and gravel and heaven knows what else.I hear that there’s a truck sent to comb the route at the end of the day to pick up wasted bodies by the roadside. What should one do? I signed up at Bally’s Fitness and now I’m pumping 10-lb weights and surviving 25 minutes on the cardio machines. Do you realize that it’s easy to squander away 1 ½ hours or more just doing the weight circuit, repeating ab curls and gasping at the cardio machines? Now walking 6 miles is a cinch, not to mention what I walk playing 18-holes on weekends. How many miles is a 5200 yard golf course driving off from the red tees? So I figure I can survive the walk on October 5-7 with probably nothing worse than blisters on my already bunion-deformed sorry feet, the legacy of miles covered making patient rounds in the halls of UP-PGH in 4-inch stilleto heels.

It turned out the physical preparation is the easy part. Again I found out too late that I need to raise at least $1900 to be able to have the privilege of walking 60 miles and torturing myself. Although I know I can stick up some of my rich friends and I’d get that $1900 in a blink it’s not fun, is it? Besides I got serious and I said I’d do this right , after all I’m already putting in tremendous physical effort . I might as well send the fundraiser message across, i.e., breast cancer awareness. So a light bulb flashed in my head, the Madhatters !

Now you are going to hear about the Madhatters. When they put on their hats they can do anything, but on one condition: they must have fun while doing it. So once again I fell into a rabbit hole one lazy afternoon and I dreamt I would have a party on my birthday and have an auction-fundraiser. This is how I saw it in my dream:

Before I leave this decade
I want to make a point
Attitude is what a growing girl must have
Getting better not feeling older
Is what I intend to serve

So I’m walking 60 miles for 3 days
You may have heard of the AVON walk
From the calm waters of Lake Lanier
The first steps begin
And the last rests in the bosom of Atlanta
In between are a thousand steps
And maybe blisters and bloodied feet
But first I must bring $1900
So hope can flourish for us
Who happens to get the B-disease
Breast cancer that is

Please come to my birthday party
Bear no gifts but bring something you already have
Someone’s junk maybe somebody’s treasure
Bidding for these will give everyone pleasure
And we’ll collect all the bids into a fund
To send me to the AVON 3-day camp
That would be the greatest birthday gift
And the knowledge that my friends
Have got the right stuff with ATTITUDE

So how will the Madhatters pull this off? First they met for high tea at the Four Seasons on 14th Street to figure out what to do with the hats they’d wear. The Whimsical Madhatter is I since I dreamed this all up and all the hats everyone will wear so everyone can help me make this for real. We have 2 Culinary Magical Madhatters and those are Nene and Eudy who will plan the menu and set up our table real nice. We have 2 Martha Stewart Wanna-Be Madhatter, Tess and Bonnie who will decorate the party space (which is my backyard) with originality and select a theme or motif. Our Party Madhatter is Gloria who will plan potions to serve so we’ll really have fun. We need 2 Money-Handler Madhatters Didi and Susan who will collect bids at the auction and fill out pledge forms and send them to the fund headquarters and endorse auction items to the highest bidder. Nene wears 2 hats but she took offense at the title of her other hat as it was originally the Hustler Madhatter who will be in charge of the auction together with Precy. They will make sure that the bidding is enthusiastic and everyone is involved and getting carried away. They were also asked to go to auction school to learn how to talk fast without breathing and to learn how to entice the audience to bid to their heart’s content. Nene thought that the title is contrary to her demure and sweet nature and she was adamant not to tarnish her reputation and flatten her coiffure with such unflattering title so I changed their title to Madhatter Scarlett. She and Precy are now happy and back into the fold. And last but not least Marites is the Commando Madhatter. She will plan completion time lines for everyone and make sure every Madhatter knows what she’s supposed to do and she’s the authority who during the party will organize the schedule of events and make them happen without a hitch.
We had a lovely afternoon sipping tea and scarfing the finger sandwiches. We were so hungry. By the way high tea at the Four Seasons is definitely a more divine experience than the Ritz. The Madhatters have spoken.

So folks if you get an invitation to my birthday party on August 25 we sure would like for you to come and have fun and share the adventure of 2000 friends who will walk from Lake Lanier to Atlanta on October 5-7, 60 miles 3 days, each one bringing $1900 so breast cancer will disappear from the face of the earth.