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Walking to make a difference by Cindy Abole Public Relations The event was billed as a powerful, spectacular experience promising to leave its mark on every participant—man or woman. "Because it's time to do something big about breast cancer," read the metro billboard that caught the eye of my friend during her commute home.  It was enough to stir one's soul. Eventually it would invoke both of us into believing that even our simple actions could make a difference for women everywhere. The Avon Breast Cancer 3-Day was truly an incredible experience. The event began with a morning breakfast and send-off of 2,800 walkers from Hood College in Frederick, Md. On the first weekend of May more than 2,800 people, most of them women, converged on a journey that would take them along a three-day, 60-mile trek from Frederick, Md. to the Mall in Washington, D.C. This inaugural D.C. event joined six other planned walks around the country to raise breast cancer awareness and money to fight a disease that strikes one woman in nine every year. For my friend and me, two middle-aged professionals whose vacation tastes wandered along lesser extremes, the idea of participating in a 60-mile walk seemed paradoxical yet attractive. With only four months to prepare, we considered our challenges and accepted our fate together. For months, we trained like Spartans (she in Washington D.C. and me in Charleston). We tackled it with as much strategy as a D-Day invasion. We set common goals for ourselves building strength and endurance. We discussed tactics, attended training expos, talked to runners and other athletes--sponging every bit of information from resources to help us in our efforts.  So what if we had to pitch and sleep in two-person tents; hoof an average of 20-miles-a-day, for three consecutive days in record-high 90 degree heat and ward off blisters. Many of us trained to become dauntless to these obstacles. What we were unprepared for was the enormous reality of the event when we arrived on Day Zero at the campus of Hood College, our starting point in Frederick. Our months-long effort for training, fund-raising and planning cumulated to this one moment.  The journey evolved into something more than just fund-raising and the ability to do something physical for a good cause. It became a celebration of life for everyone involved. Along our trek we met dynamic individuals like Phyllis, Gale, Andrea and countless other women of all ages and nationalities who overcame their own personal struggles with breast cancer to hike this journey. For the group of 400 survivors, the event offered three days of communion and a celebration for staying power. Some men and women, walking with high emotion, proudly displayed pictures, keepsakes and other tokens in memory of brave mothers, grandmothers, aunts, daughters, sisters and friends —a reminder of how the disease crosses all lines and affects so many people. Every face, photo and pink ribbon became a symbol or badge of courage to remind each of us of the frailty of human life. Throughout the three-day experience, women cried freely in anger, joy and pride.  With each step we learned how to embrace our own personal pains through words of encouragement, kind deeds or even a shared smile. All of us drew strength from each other, friends and strangers, to focus on hope and possibility for a healthier tomorrow. In the end, our combined efforts that weekend broke records for money raised during an Avon three-day event: $6 million, with about $4 million going towards breast cancer research, early detection screenings and non-profit breast health programs throughout the country.  As for my friend and me, we learned more than just blister prevention and stretching exercises that weekend, we rediscovered a vitality in life and learned to cherish the things most treasured: our relationships and own good health, so far.