Walk it and work it!

Last weekend Team Sara, Brain and Tall attended the Portland Brain Tumor Walk for the 2nd year in a row.  And it was a great success again!!

Go Team!! Lisa, Mom, Eric, Dave, Jason, Nate, Amy, Leslie, Steph, Jen, Courtnie, Jeshe, Mel, and Townsend/Spiderman

Special thanks to Steph for coordinating our awesome charcoal heather and neon yellow shirts!  And the surprise yellow socks!!

Da socks

We had as much fun as we could make a leisurely 5k walk, with lots of bottlenecks along the path, overcast skies with sprinkles, and an early morning start.  I brought my mini mp3 boombox (purchased and loaded up for the occasion) and Jason brought his choreography, which helped spice up the walk.  It's nearly impossible for choreographed dancing to NOT spice up an event!

Cousinly fist pumping

I enjoyed carrying the boombox as well.

The boombox is so tiny!  You can hardly see it in my left hand.

After the walk, and after Leslie pushed the wheelchair for a little girl who wanted to get out of it and walk across the finish line (it was a tear jerker), they did awards.  And I was soooo happy to get 1st place for individual fundraising!!!  I raised $4,541 as of the day of the walk and our team raised $6,391, and that's not even counting all of the matching donations that have yet to come through (I'm guessing it might be almost $1k!).  THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR DONATIONS TO THIS CAUSE!!  I'm so proud, and humbled.  :)

This is my awesome little star plaque I received.  I am pretty excited about it.  :)  I also received a 2-night stay in a 4-bedroom house on the Oregon coast.  Pretty fantastic too!  (P.S. You're all invited...)

There were auction items at the walk, and a girl that left before the awards ceremony gave me her 3 raffle tickets since she was leaving.  I didn't know what they were entered into, but I added it to my own ticket (which I'd put in a box for some wine).  Well, lo and behold, one of my numbers was picked!!  And what did I win.......?!?

A pair of baby Jordans.  Yup.

After the walk, the team had lunch at Fulton Pub, a nearby McMenamins joint, which is becoming our post-walk locale.  I busted out the boombox again and we had a nice little lunch.

If I think too much about this whole experience with the Portland Brain Tumor Walk, it'll make me tear up.  I held it together on the day of the walk (which was an improvement from last year!) but am just so touched by everyone's generosity and love and support.  I still find it amazing that I was able to raise as much as I did, and I owe all of it to you: my family, and friends, and colleagues, and blog readers, and fremenies (j/k), and acquaintances that I've met once, and people that I've never even met but heard about the cause or know of me through someone else.  While I'm so lucky to have my health and a quiet, happy tumor (*knocking on wood*) right now, I know that this can change someday/anytime and I may need future (scary) treatment.  The money donated to the National Brain Tumor Society funds research (among other things), and someday that research may just save my life.  So thank you for investing in my future!!!!!!

What a great day.  I hope that next year even more people can join the team, and maybe I'll even get a walk started in Seattle!  (But don't hold your breath for that one quite yet...)