The First Step

Hello All,
This is Hope here the silent partner of Hopelessly Romantic Art studio. You are probably wondering what has taken over our blog and why my running shoes are on the banner of our blog. Well my shoes and I are about to take of one the biggest adventures of my life! I have taken an incredible challenge. On October 22 -24, 2010, me and my shoes will be walking 60 miles over the course of three days, camping out at night with thousands of other women and men who are taking this journey with me. It's for an event called the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure. All of the net proceeds are invested in community based breast health programs and breast cancer research. Susan G. Komen for the Cure works hard to build a future without breast cancer, and I plan on raising $2,300 to help bring us closer to that goal.
This is quite an undertaking for me. I will be walking in a team with my boss and co-workers. Our team name is the Chick-fil-A Chicks! We are so excited to be doing this, and one of our team members is a breast cancer survivor. We are honored to have her with us. When Laura Lee (my boss) first approached me about walking I was pretty hesitant. I mean 60 miles in three days is an amazing feat!!!! I wasn't sure if I was up to it. I was like, I haven't ever really been affected by breast cancer, why would I be walking? Then I started to talking to people around me, women I have known for years and began to find out how many of them have been affected by this disease. Wonderful women who I would have never had the privilege to know or still have in my life, if they had not beat breast cancer. I even found out from my mother that one of my Great Aunts passed away from breast caner. I realized that this disease while not directly altering my life has touched so many around me. One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime. When I sit down and think about how many women I know and are related to, it really hits home how close this disease is to touching my life and the lives of women around me. So that is when I made my decision, I was going to walk. It didn't matter that it was 60 miles, what is that compared to fighting for my life. I am proud to say that I going to make a difference and help bring us closer to the future where breast cancer is curable. Who knows maybe it will be my sister, or daughter, or niece, or granddaughter that will one day benefit from the work Susan G. Komen 3-day for the Cure is doing.
Please consider giving a donation to become a part of this journey with me. I am going to be updating everyone from time to time on how I am doing on training, during the walk and more. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this blog. I am so excited on taking my first adventure, and I hope you will join me!

Hope