Two skydiving friends participated in a weekend "boogie" sponsored by the Chambersburg Area Skydivers Association, but took time out from their skydiving activities to raise money for a future event, a three-day walk in San Diego this fall.
Amy Mahon of Chambersburg and her friend Sue Stambaugh of York make up the Flying Ta-Tas team which will take part in November's national 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk, which benefits the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and National Philanthropic Trust.
The Trust funds important breast cancer research, education, screening and treatment, things both women care deeply about.
Both have either friends or relatives -- in Sue's case, both -- who have battled breast cancer.
It is Sue's third three-day walk for the cause. She participated in an identical walk in Philadelphia in 2002, after her best friend was diagnosed with the disease, and then did the walk again last year after learning that friend, whose cancer had been in remission for a number of years, had sprung back to life and spread.
Sue calls the walk "an incredible experience."
Each walk has about 5,000 participants who decorate a large tent with the names of breast cancer victims who didn't survive.
"Tears always come to my eyes when I look at those tents," she said Saturday as she and Amy manned a food and bake sale booth at the annual CASA Boogie.
The 3-Day Walk covers 60 miles -- about 20 each day -- but Sue said the walk, while difficult, is invigorating. "Just when you think you can't go any further, you hit a cheering section and it revives you," she said.
Those cheering sections are set up at various points along the route for just that reason, to encourage the walkers and cheer them toward their goal.
Sue and Amy said they will soon start what Sue calls "hard core" training for the November event, starting with shorter walks each day and adding more distance at regular intervals until they can walk 20 miles a day.
"It is something we will get serious about," Sue said. "You can't just go out and walk 60 miles without it."
The two women are attempting to raise $4,600 in donations for the Susan G. Komen Trust.
To date, they have reached 52% of that goal, between the food and bake sale, donations that people have put in canisters in a variety of locations, and pledges people have made for the walk.
They plan to have a yard sale in the near future to boost that total. They have already got a number of donated items and promises of more for that project.
"I walk because I must; I must make a difference, I must help support the research that will someday save our loved ones from the pain and suffering," Sue says in her statement of purpose on the 3-Day Walk Web site, http://www.the3day.org.
Amy calls the walk "an amazing journey in the fight against breast cancer," and lists five people she is walking for on the site, including a cousin and her best friend's mother.
The two women's enthusiasm for the breast cancer fundraiser was matched only by their enthusiasm for sky diving over the weekend.
By the time they set up their food booth Saturday, the two women had already made two jumps as part of the three-day holiday boogie and were looking forward to making several more jumps before the boogie was over on Sunday.
To donate
Go to http://www.the3day.org/goto/skydivers To see more of the Public Opinion, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.publicopiniononline.com. Copyright (c) 2009, Public Opinion, Chambersburg, Pa. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2009, Public Opinion, Chambersburg, Pa.