People ask me why I walk, and raise money, and am so involved with the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. To understand, watch the short video I made titled “Boston Closing Ceremony” and look at the pictures of the youth crew members in their bright yellow sweatshirts. The tears they shed are for mothers who have died from breast cancer. One of them said at the evening activity at the Boston walk, she wishes she could have a hug from her mother. Need I say more as to why I do this?
Money from the Avon Walk supports many organizations that help women coping with cancer right now. Including support for more than 95 “safety net” hospitals that treat the medically underserved, offering unique and vital Patient Navigator programs and state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment. The Avon Foundation has helped more than 1,000,000 women in the U.S. receive a mammogram. More than two-thirds of these women were uninsured, and more than half were from minority populations.
Your donation helps provide services to women who may otherwise not receive them because of either inadequate health insurance or none at all. Any amount is very much appreciated ! Learn more about the good work performed by the Avon Foundation and the Avon Walk –> http://avonwalk.org
To make a donation to my walk –> http://www.avonwalk.org/goto/kr. Thank you, Karen
Here are some of the photos from Charlotte. You can view all the photos on my Flickr account here.
I am again participating in the Race to Deliver on November 22. It’s a 4 mile run/walk around Central Park. I will be walking the course as I would need paramedic intervention if I attempted to run 
– Benefits God’s Love We Deliver –
God’s Love We Deliver provides nutritious meals, free of charge, to people living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other life-altering illnesses throughout New York City and nearby Newark and Hudson County, New Jersey. Each weekday, serving nearly 1,700 clients— half of them women and children. Their chefs and kitchen volunteers prepare delicious, nourishing food, which their drivers and neighborhood volunteers deliver with love. They also offer free, unlimited illness-specific nutrition education and counseling to their clients as well as to other individuals and organizations. In over 20 years of operation, they have never turned away an eligible person or had a waiting list. Hunger is a need that cannot wait.
You can make a donation on their secure website –> http://www.racetodeliver.org/kar
What your money provides….
$5,000: Meals and nutritional counseling for someone living with HIV/AIDS for one full year.
$2,500: Meals and nutritional counseling for someone living with cancer for six months.
$1,100: Meals and nutritional counseling for a child for 11 weeks.
$500: Meals and nutritional counseling for someone living with Parkinson’s disease for 5 weeks.
$250: Over 25 delicious meals and nutrition counseling to someone in need.
Learn more about GLWD on their website: http://www.glwd.org/
This year is the first year I did not walk in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. Instead, I participated as a crew member – one of the event photographers at the Boston, New York and Charlotte walks. It was a truly awesome experience. For each event, I was given a sign for my truck windshield which read “Press” and a button to wear reading “Photo Crew”. As I walked around, I asked people to smile while I took their pictures. There wasn’t a single person who said, “No”. Most people were more than happy to mug for the camera, others smiled shyly.
My favorite subjects are people who came out to cheer for the walkers. These people take time out of their day on either Saturday or Sunday to stand along the route and encourage the walkers. Some bring homemade signs. Others wear pink and wave pompoms. Some even dress up their dogs with a pink bow. In each city, there are impromptu cheering stations along the walk route.
The group in this photo were from a local radiology center in Charlotte. Seven of the eight people were dressed in pink and one was in white representing the one in eight people who are diagnosed with breast cancer.
I was able to view the walk from a different perspective this year. In the past, when I walked the route, I saw the backs of the walkers ahead of me. Many walkers wear signs on their backs which explain why they walk. It might be for a mother who has passed away from breast cancer, a friend who is a survivor, or for themselves. One time I was behind a guy who was pushing a stroller with a young child. On his back was a sign which included a woman’s picture and the words “For my wife, I miss you” and the birth and death years. That is one of the most poignant memories I have of the walk.
At each of the closing ceremonies, I had the opportunity to be up on stage to photograph the crowd. It is really fascinating to watch the play of emotions across the faces of the people. They are all smiles as they stride into the barricaded area in front of the stage. First the walkers come in on the left and right sides. Then, the survivors wearing their light pink t-shirts and waving white pompoms come in. They are followed by the youth crew in their yellow sweatshirts. Behind them comes the crew members in their blue crew shirts and costumes. Many of the rest stop crews choose themes for their stops and dress up accordingly.
During the speeches, the crowd becomes subdued, listening to the personal story of one of the walkers. A video is shown, during which many of the people start to cry as they are reminded of loved ones who have been touched by cancer. Finally, the crowd comes together, clasping hands and cheering as they celebrate their accomplishments of raising awareness, money and completing the walk.
Over the 3 walks this year, I took 5,400 photos! Quite amazing, if you ask me. I have posted them on my Flickr account. Some of the photos made it to the AvonWalk.org website: Boston, New York, and Charlotte (my photos have the file name DSC_xxxx). In addition, at the NY walk, I had the opportunity to take photos of guest speaker Suze Orman with the beneficiaries.
Two of my photos were choose to be part of the press release issued by Avon. My photos are of Suze Orman and the crowd. The press release was picked up by Newcom.com including the crowd shot! Which I think makes me a published photographer, except that I did not receive photo credit 
.
Next year, I hope to be able to reprise my role of photographer, and I plan to walk at least one of the events.
This year, I participated in 3 of the 9 Avon Walk for Breast Cancer events: Boston, New York, and Charlotte. Your generous contributions totaled $5,041. Thank you ! I really appreciate all your support, especially in light of the difficult economic times.
Some stats from the 3 walks:
Boston:
- The Avon Walk Boston raised more than $5.6 million to advance access to care and finding a cure for breast cancer.
- The Avon Walk Boston was a huge success, with over 2500 participants drawn from 37 states, including 214 breast cancer survivors, who joined together to raise lifesaving funds and awareness for breast cancer.
- Press release for Boston walk: http://info.avonfoundation.org/site/DocServer/Boston_Closing_Release_.pdf?docID=9722
New York:
- The seventh annual Avon Walk for Breast Cancer season continued with the Avon Walk in New York, which raised more than $9.5 million to advance access to care and finding a cure for breast cancer, making it the largest Avon Walk of 2009.
- The Avon Walk New York is the eighth of nine Avon Walks this year, and the event attracted 4,000 participants drawn from 4 countries and 46 states plus Washington, DC. Among the participants were nearly 450 breast cancer survivors and over 400 men, who joined together to raise lifesaving funds and awareness for breast cancer.
- Press release for New York walk: http://info.avonfoundation.org/site/DocServer/NY_Closing_Release_rev.pdf?docID=10102
Charlotte:
- The Avon Walk Charlotte raised more than $2.3 million to advance access to care and finding a cure for breast cancer.
- The Avon Walk Charlotte was a huge success, with over 1100 participants drawn from 4 countries and 39 states, including 114 breast cancer survivors, who joined together to raise lifesaving funds and awareness for breast cancer.
- Press release for Charlotte: http://info.avonfoundation.org/site/DocServer/AWBC_Charlotte_Closing_Release_-_FINAL.pdf?docID=10162
Readers of this blog may already have read the post, Why is a Pink Ribbon the Symbol of Breast Cancer? There is another side to the story. Pink has become ubiquitous, especially in October. Companies have jumped on the band wagon to market products using pink – everything including Sharpie Markers, Igloo Coolers, KitchenAid Mixers, and Dark Chocolate Oreo’s for the cure. I am not sure how these products and those like them are relevant to the fight against breast cancer, but those Oreo’s sure look yummy.
Time posted an article today which explains where the money goes when consumers purchase “Pink Products”. I have to disagree with one part of the article and that building awareness is crucial in the fight against breast cancer, or any cancer for that matter. Early detection has been shown to save lives.
It is hard to believe, but there are still places where cancer continues to carry a stigma and people are dying because of culture mores: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122304682088802359.html. So although I may not purchase any of the “Pinked” merchandise, I do have a pink ribbon magnet on the back of my car.
Seeing Red In Pink Products: One Woman’s Fight Against Breast Cancer Consumerism
Newsweek: Posted Tuesday, October 13, 2009 12:38 PM
by Joan Raymond
I just redeemed a coupon from P&G for a Swiffer. For my effort, two cents will be given to the National Breast Cancer Foundation. I would have to buy 500 Swiffer wet thingies to make a $10 donation. But I needed a Swiffer anyway. And two cents is better than nothing. So why not use the coupons that were inserted into my newspaper?
Because, says Barbara Brenner, the executive director of Breast Cancer Action, a nonprofit watchdog group headquartered in San Francisco, buying pink products has little to do with helping cure and treat breast cancer. Says Brenner: “Everyone has been guilt-tripped into buying pink things. If shopping could cure breast cancer it would be cured by now.”
Well, I wasn’t particularly “guilted,” just out of some basic necessities. And hey, two cents is two cents.
But Brenner says consumers need to strip off their pink-tinted glasses. Read entire article here: http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thehumancondition/archive/2009/10/13/seeing-red-in-pink-products-one-woman-s-fight-against-breast-cancer-consumerism.aspx
It’s October which means the pink ribbons are out in force. Hard to look in any direction and not see them in a store front, on the back of a car, on a shopping bag or a container of food. According to an article on Wikipedia, the first appearance of a pink ribbon in connection with breast cancer was in the Fall of 1991. The Susan G. Komen Foundation handed out pink ribbons to participants in its New York City race for breast cancer survivors.[1]
The next year, Alexandra Penney, then editor-in-chief of Self,[2] a woman health magazine, was working on the second annual National Breast Cancer Awareness Month (NBCAM) issue. Evelyn Lauder, who was the senior corporate vice president at Estée Lauder, was invited to be the guest editor of the NBCAM issue edition. Penney and Lauder came up with the idea to create a ribbon to distribute in it’s stores.
Charlotte Hayley, who battled breast cancer, produced peach color ribbons. She sold them with a card saying, “The National Cancer Institute annual budget is 1.8 billion US Dollars, and only 5 percent goes for cancer prevention. Help us wake up our legislators and America by wearing this ribbon”.[3] Her message spread fast. This made Penny and Evelyn Lauder interested in Hayley’s concept. They offered to adapt Hayley’s idea by working with her. But Hayley rejected the offer, saying that they were too commercial.
After discussing opportunities with Lauder, Hayley and their lawyers, they came up with a “new” color. The new color of the ribbon was pink and became an international symbol for breast cancer awareness. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_ribbon.
Pink was chosen for the ribbon color to symbolize breast cancer because it is a bright, vibrant, strong, healthy color. This puts it in direct opposition to the often very debilitating and destructive nature of breast cancer. Pink is also seen as a feminine color. Breast cancer is a very personal disease as the breasts are a strong part of femininity and what makes a woman a woman. Choosing such a color that is a bright, healthy symbol of women was seen as a positive and striking way to increase awareness of breast cancer as well as support funding of research to fight this disease. [4]
With Christmas just around the corner – Macy’s already has decorations for sale in their housewares department, you maybe looking for the ultimate toy to give that precious tyke in your life. Time Magazine has compiled a list of the 10 most dubious toys.
Why let your kids play with toys that encourage their wildest flights of fancy when you can teach them the joys of standing in line and following rules? For a cool $58, you can bring your kids up to speed on airport-security regulations imposed in the fearful wake of 9/11. German company Playmobil is known for making toys and figurines that allow kids to explore real-life occupations: fireman, policeman, cowboy, pilot. This entrant, in the words of a bemused reviewer, is “great at teaching youngsters how to behave in a police state.”To see all the toys including Breast Feeding Baby, Terrorist Legoman and Barbie’s Pregnant Friend, click–> http://www.stumbleupon.com/s/#2HKCBb/www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1927306_1927313,00.html/
We just received our shipment of the 2010 Keeshond Sunshine Rescue Foundation calendar. It was very exciting to open the calendar the first time and look through it for Scruffy’s picture. He is “Mr. July”. Scruffy’s picture and story appear along with 11 other wonderful Keeshonden.
Not familiar with the story of Scruffy? You can read all about Scruffy and Darryl on the website: ScruffyTheLegend.com.
There is also a section in the calendar of pictures of dogs who have crossed the Rainbow Bridge. Our friends, Margaret and Dave’s, beloved KeeKee has his picture in the gallery.
The KSRF calendar is packed with captivating stories of Keeshonden who have found new lives through rescue and beautiful photographs of some of the most amazing Keeshonden on the planet. Money from the sale of the calendar provides financial assistance for medical expenses of rescued Keeshonden in foster care and to expedite funding for rescues.
Order your copy today: http://www.ksrf.org/calendar.html. You’ll be supporting a great cause and you’ll have 12 gorgeous dogs to look at all year long. Of course, you’ll probably be leaving it open to July for the entire year 
Story goes, a shop owner in Mexico was tired of thugs breaking into his auto shop so he came up with this idea of giving his guard dog a lion-like haircut.
Another version has the same story line, but the location is Arizona.
The most likely story comes from maryannaville.com. The business name of the tire shop is LEON which means LION. LEON is also the last name of the owner and as you can tell from the photos, LEON’s pet is being useful as one of its marketing options.
I was not able to find any other references on where the business might be located. The large containers in the back have MexLub labels, which might indicate the photo was taken in Mexico. The company, MexLub was dissolved in 2003 according to an article on AllBusiness.com.
So, I contacted Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of NJ this afternoon to cancel my son’s health insurance policy. After going through the first option tree, with none of the options being “Cancel policy”, I was able to get a live representative on the line. After giving her all my information, policy number, name, address, phone number, son’s name, address, phone number, she asked how she could help me today. I told her I would like to cancel the policy. She informed me that she could not handle that for me, but she would transfer me to billing.
I was treated to a few minutes of Musac hell, when I heard the obligatory “Thank you for holding, your call is important to us. Please stay on the line and the next available representative will be with you shortly” followed by more staticy Musac. A new message came on stating that “Due to increased call volume, you can press 1 to leave a voice message and a representative would return the call within 24 hours”. I opted to keep holding a little longer.
After 10 loops of Musac, “Your call is important”, Musac, Health related info, Musac, “Due to increased call volume”, I decided to fold my tent and leave a message. I pressed “1″. A recorded message came on stating that “There is insufficient room in the Billing Department voice mailbox to leave a message” followed by CLICK. read more…
Be a member of my Avon Walk for Breast Cancer support team on Facebook. I'm trying to get 1000 people before the NY walk in October 
