Crew for a Cure

.meeting of the minds.

We had our first team meeting last night at Starbucks in Victor, and it was great to get everyone together, and of course it is impossible to get Christy's Crew together without a ton of laughs as well!

The highlight of the night was a visit from Regina Muscarella, a English teacher at Victor Jr. High.   Regina will be celebrating her 10th year as a breast cancer survivor on February 16th!!   Regina contacted me a couple of weeks ago about Christy's Crew and shared her blog with me and asked to help out with our efforts.   Regina did a 3 mile Avon walk in Bear Mountain, NY, so I invited her to our team meeting to talk about her experiences on her walk and as a survivor.   What an amazing woman she is, and what an inspiration she was to all of us.   We where all saying we wished she could have stayed and talked for the whole meeting!    Regina  also presented Christy with a "3 day pin" from her 3 day walk, and a card with a $100.00 donation from the Jr. High teachers from their "Dress Down Friday Fund."    Again, another amazing story about everyday people around us and their kindness, thoughtfulness, and inspiration that they all share with Christy's Crew.     Thank you Regina for taking the time to visit with us, you are an AMAZING woman.

Other topics for the meeting where fundraisers, future fundraisers, walk specifics, crew, and crew gear!   Look for some exciting stuff coming up throughout the winter!   

Informational Meeting Conference Call

I attended an Introduction Meeting conference call that was hosted by Molly, a walker buddy from the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer on Monday.   I swear the walker buddies from Avon are FANTASTIC!!  It was a VERY informative call, so if any of you are remotely interesting in joining Christy's Crew, try to attend one of these calls and you will get all sorts of information on the walk.   Here is a bit of what we talked about on the call -

• Registration takes place on Friday night, May 2nd between the hours of 2-8 pm.   It takes about 1 hour to check in.   During registration you will be asked to submit a medical form (if you have not done this online already), give last minute donations, get your wrist band and goody bag FILLED with all sorts of good stuff, shop at the Avon Walk Shop, and get you tent assignment and luggage take for the Wellness Village (more on this later).    Since the Wellness is not open on Friday night, we have already reserved 4 hotel rooms for Christy's Crew right near the Kennedy Center.   Since we now have 13 walkers, we might need to get a couple more rooms.   
• Opening ceremonies are Saturday, May 3rd at 7:00 am.   They suggest we get there between 5-6 am (ouch.).   Before the ceremony you will get your hot breakfast, and turn in your gear that you want brought to the Wellness Village.   Molly warned all on the call that the opening ceremony is what I call a "2 tissue box" ceremony, so if any of you are like me, I will be bringing 3 boxes. 
• All MEALS during the walk are included with your registration fee.   This includes breakfast, lunch, and dinner on Saturday, and breakfast and lunch on Sunday.   
• The walk path is clearly marked with arrows that will direct you all over the Washington DC area.   Last year the walk started at the Kennedy Center (where registration, opening and closing ceremonies where LAST year, but this might change for this years walk) and went through Georgetown, Chevy Chase, Silver Spring, and then back through all of the sites of Washington.    She said that she thought it would be a new route this year, but I guess it is a big secret, so we will find out shortly before the walk.    Last year the Wellness Village was actually at a school in Silver Springs. 
• There is a rest stop/quick stop every 2 miles.   At these rest stops there is snacks, drinks, bathrooms, medical staff, etc.   Each rest stop has a different "theme", so each is a lot of fun.   For example, last year there was a "Hollywood" theme where they had a red carpet etc.   I think we need to stop at all of them then!  :)  There are also cheering stations for anyone who wants to come and cheer us on, but not walk. 
• There are shuttles and "Sweep" vehicles all over the route to pick up ANYONE who wants a rest or wants to stop.   This walk is NOT a race.   We can walk at our own pace and stop whenever we want.   After mile marker 13 there is a shuttle that will take us right to the Wellness Village.   
• So what is the Wellness Village?  It is our home away from home.   Because Christy's Crew already has over 10 walkers, we will be assigned our own section of the village...meaning, all of the walkers in Christy's Crew's 2 person tents will ALL be right next to each other.   You CAN pick who you sleep with, so start finding out who snores and who doesn't now.   At the Wellness Village they have sponsor booths, hot food, drinks, fun stiff, anther Avon store, all of our gear that we dropped off earlier, and a band at 7:30 pm (for those still standing).    10:00 pm is lights out.    Again, we will be given a tent, a tent address, instructions on how to set up the tent, and a buddy to sleep with.   This sounds like fun!!
• One Sunday morning the route opens up for walkers at 7:30 am.   Remember, you don't HAVE to walk the whole 39 miles.  Christy has talked about walking the 26 on Saturday, and then seeing the sites of DC on Sunday.   We can talk more about this at the next team meeting, and really, each walker can do whatever they are able or wanting to do.   
• The closing ceremony is at 3:30 pm on Sunday afternoon.  Everyone (family, friends, etc.) is welcome to join us at this event.
• One of the other big topics on the call was what I posted about earlier in the week, and that is people joining Christy's Crew as "CREW".   They will be assigned a job by Avon to do over the weekend, and they don't have minimum fundraising requirements either.    I know my husband Chris is seriously considering joining as "CREW" so he can help fight breast cancer in some sort of way.  Jamie is also considering doing this if he can find a way to video tape us at the same time!   So if anyone else wants to help out the Christy's Crew but doesn't want to walk, seriously consider this option.   Molly said that some of the teams in DC will raise to about 80 people because of all of the "CREW" that is on a team.   We would LOVE to have you!!

Anyway, I left the call totally excited about the walk.   Not only are we doing something to fight breast cancer, I KNOW it will be a weekend that none of us will ever forget.   

So who will be the first "CREW" member of Christy's Crew?   

Who else wants to walk with us?   

Make a difference.   Not only for you, but your children's generation.