Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Save Our Tatas



Streams of women wearing pink were walking through the Civic Center neighborhood on Sunday....



...as part of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk.



The annual San Francisco charity event, which also takes place in various cities throughout the country, consists of a 60-mile hike spread over three days...



...with the participants camping for two nights at Crissy Field in the Marina.



99% of the walkers seemed to be women, though there was an occasional male fairy joining them.



Civic Center's pit stop on the final day was basically set up for the porta-potties...



...along with a medical tent to help those who were having a hard time walking those last four miles back to Crissy Field.



To be part of this extravaganza, participants needed to each raise at least $2,200 which goes to a big, moneygrubbing charity in Dallas, Texas (click here for their website) which was started by Nancy G. Brinker in 1982 after going through hell with her sister Susan G. Komen's three-year losing battle with breast cancer.



Though I'm not fond of charities that siphon money from people based on their fear and sadness surrounding a particular disease, the walk itself looked like an interesting empowerment event, with groups of women of all ages forming teams with punning names: "Kindred Soles," "Save Our Tatas," "Walkers For Knockers" and "Operation Save a Rack."



In fact, I think the entire event would be even more moving if the charity fundraising aspect were thrown out altogether. People could instead make new friends, push each other towards physical goals, and meet a network of breast cancer survivors and caretakers, all without having to hit up their friends for donations.

1 comment:

janinsanfran said...

I'm with you. I ambulate a lot and have thought about doing this just for the experience, but I can't see sending the $$ off to this charity.

Have given to friends who did it tho.