Vance Women Walk

The Making Strides Against Breast Cancer was today. Most of the Vance women walked the five miles this morning (some happier than others). The above picture was taken at the very beginning of the walk - Laura, Brianna, Brenda, Alex, Mom (hiding in back), Val, and Aunt Carol.

There were around 10,000 walkers and the American Cancer Society hoped to raise half a million dollars at today's walk.

The walk started at Cottonwood Mall, went down Rio Grande and then turned on to the walking/bike trail that runs along the river. It was a beautiful day. We saw a baby horse, baby sheep, baby ducks, and lots of geese. We also picked out some houses which we would like to live in some day.



Here we are walking down Rio Grande.



This is a picture from the walking trail. The Rio Grande is on the left and the irrigation ditch on the right.

At the end of the walk there was juice and fruit. Here is Alex enjoying her after walk snack.

Backpack

I am still working on the perfect set of items to carry with me on my long walks. This is the bag I took with me to Chimayo. One of the most important items I walk with is a windbreaker. Someone told me recently that you can walk in just about any weather, that when you are walking you create your own atmosphere close to your body. A windbreaker is key to having a comfortable atmosphere.

So I am walking with Gatorade, iPod, hat, extra socks, mace, hat, windbreaker, money, ID, Aleve, bandaids (I haven't had to use ever!), my camera, phone, and a little bit of food.

Friday Walk

Dana and I left for our walk around 7:30am from the Camel Rock Casino. The first 8 miles went really quickly. There were a lot more people walking from Santa Fe today than when I did the walk 4 years ago. The weather was perfect. Very warm, high clouds, light breeze. The weather report last night said it was going to be very windy today, but we ended up being really grateful for any wind we got.

We walked with thousands of people. Once we got within 10 miles of Chimayo there were many many people who had tables set up with water and fruit. People were so generous. There were tiny babies riding on the back of their parents, toddlers being pushed in strollers, teenagers walking in pink thongs, sons walking with their moms, an old woman who could hardly lift her head walking with the assistance of her daughters.

We walked pretty quickly. Dana hasn't been training to walk, and she kept an amazing pace!

Jackie was our pace car. She found us at about the 12 mile mark and opened up her trunk filled with water, Gatorade, and sweet luscious fresh fruit. It was the best!


Jackie and Dana

The hill into Chimayo was the most difficult part of the walk. It was a long hill and the road was really uneven. There were also a lot of cars going in and coming out of the town - so it was really crowded.


The road into Chimayo

We arrived in Chimayo a little after noon, I think. We walked about 17 miles, with only one real break.



This is the Sanctuario de Chimayo. You can see the people waiting to go into the church. The line curved around out into the road and was about 3/10 of a mile long.

It was a beautiful day!

Male Breast Cancer

John W. Nick Foundation Inc. was originally established November 9, 1995 to promote awareness of male breast cancer. Since its inception, research has shown that male breast cancer is a bigger problem than previously realized, due in part to the fact that men are misdiagnosed or ashamed to come forward about their disease--as if it's wrong for a man to get it.

In the United States alone:

For every 124 women who contacts breast cancer, at least one man will contract the same disease. That's nearly 1% of breast cancer cases! (And the numbers are higher worldwide.)

For every woman who contracts breast cancer, at least one man will contract prostate cancer and will have an increased risk for breast cancer as well.

The mortality rate is about 42% greater for men with breast cancer than for women, probably because men don't respond quickly to symptoms and they're often misdiagnosed.

Men who never manifest breast cancer can still pass on the gene to their children, creating a greater risk that the girls, in particular, will contract breast cancer. This means that male breast cancer is one of the root causes in the epidemic of female breast cancer!

As a result of all of this and more, tens of thousands of men, women and children are affected by male breast cancer every year.

For more information visit the John W. Nick Foundation.

Brides Against Breast Cancer

It is Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation mission “To provide an opportunity for metastatic breast cancer patients to fulfill a dream or wish. It is our intention to provide cancer patients with a special time of 'Making Memories' together with their families, a chance that might not have become a reality without the assistance of the Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation."

One of the fundraising projects of the Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation is selling donated wedding gowns at trunk shows all around the country.
How to Donate your Gown

You can make dreams come true! The gift of your wedding gown helps Making Memories fulfill wishes for terminal breast cancer patients and makes a new bride's special day even more meaningful. Donations may be made during any “Brides Against Breast Cancer” event or sent directly to: Making Memories Foundation, 12708 SE Stephens Street, Portland, OR 97233. Donations may also be made during an event in your city.

Lynne Cheline, Garden Grove, CA said it best when she donated her gown to Making Memories Foundation in the Spring of 2004. “What was once my treasured possession has now become a gift, making its memory even more precious to me. Thank you Making Memories for giving me the opportunity to share my gown and help make wishes come true!”
Please be sure when sending your gown to Making Memories to include your return address INSIDE the package to ensure you receive a donation receipt. If possible, a gift of $7 will help with the cost of preparing your dress for sale and will be greatly appreciated.

We also accept veils, slips, shoes, mother’s gowns, evening and special occasion dresses, flower girl gowns and sets of bridesmaid dresses. Other items specific to weddings, including jewelry, books, ring pillows, wedding purses, etcetera are gladly received.

Tax Deductions

YOUR GIFT IS TAX DEDUCTIBLE including your shipping costs. Making Memories will send you a donation receipt for your gown three to six weeks after it has been received or you may download your receipt now. Making Memories Foundation does not place the value on your donation. We ask that you consult your tax professional to determine the ultimate value of your gift to our foundation.

Please note: If you have made a donation of less than $250, you do not need a receipt in order to take the donation as a deduction on your federal income tax return. If you have made a donation of $250 or more, you will need to retain the receipt sent to you or downloaded in order to take the donation as a deduction on your federal income tax return.

IF YOU LIVE IN THE PORTLAND, OREGON METRO AREA please drop your gown off at the Mr. Formal tuxedo rental shop on SE Grand Avenue. This is NOT a location to mail your gown!! I will not include the address in this note to you so as not to confuse anyone shipping a gown, but those of you living in the Pacific Northwest you will find the address on the internet for the SE Grand Avenue location. You may drop it off during any of their open hours. Be sure to attach a self-addressed envelope with your name and address on the gown so we can send you a donation receipt. Mr. Formal will not provide a receipt when you drop off your gown. PLEASE DO NOT DROP OFF YOUR GOWN AT THE STEPHENS STREET ADDRESS.

WHEN SHIPPING A GOWN the least expensive way to send it is to put your gown into the smallest box you can fit it into – taking it out of the original cleaners preservation box – and send it by way of either UPS Ground or FED EX Ground. Of course, you may send it in the original box if that is easier for you; however, it generally will cost about $7 dollars in additional shipping charges because of the weight of the box and its size.
FOR CANDADIAN DONORS: Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation is not registered in Canada as a non-profit foundation. However, we grant wishes for women from Canada and have granted wishes to come to Canada for recipients coming from America. We would love to receive your gown, which will continue to enable Making Memories to grant wishes to women.

For more information on Making Memories and the Brides Against Breast Cancer project, visit this link.

Doctors with Cancer

In the last several days I have heard and read a couple stories about doctors who get cancer. The first one I heard was on NPR. You can get to the story by following this link. One doctor in the story has lymphoma and another doctor has breast cancer. You can listen to the stories and read an article they wrote. Here is their concluding statement, "We hope that by expressing our experiences with cancer, we will encourage providers of cancer care to better understand what their cancer patients are facing. We have this advice: Do not just focus on survival! Talk to your patients. You must try to understand what it is like to have cancer, to live with it and be treated for it, and to survive it or succumb to it. Acknowledge what you can do to help your patient and do it."

There was also an article about Santa Fe doctor, Dr. Patrick Quinn, in this past Sunday paper. The story, unfortunately, isn't online yet. I will post it if it is made available online. Here is a quote from the article:

"Now Quinn says he has more respect than ever for his patients, especially the elderly, who go through cancer treatment. 'It blows me away the people we take and put through this treatment, ' Quinn says. 'I'm amazed they get through it. It was so complex. It took so much time; it took so much effort. I thought they were pretty tough to start with. Now I really know: They are tough as nails.'"

Assignment America on the CBS Evening News also had a sad but inspiring story about a mom, her daughter, a golf tournament, and cancer. You can follow this link to the story online.

Good Friday Walk

My friend Dana and I are walking to Chiamayo on Good Friday as part of the pilgrimage. We are planning to walk about 20 miles (mapquest says it is 23 miles) starting at the Camel Rock Casino.


Here is an article by a reporter about his experience walking to Chimayo



I did a section of the walk to Chimayo in 2002. It was an experience I will never forget, and is part of my motivation for doing the walk in Denver. I didn't know it was a big deal to walk a long distance. I thought walking - just putting one foot in front of the other - should be no problem for someone in good health. The 20 miles I walked were tough, and it took me about a week to recover. I hadn't trained at all. Along the walk I saw people who were very sick and elderly successfully making the walk. It is a spiritual and cultural experience that I am looking forward to this year.

The Archdiocese of Santa Fe tells the story of the Santuario de Chimayo.

El Santuario has been called the "Lourdes of America". No one seems to know exactly how this came about. However, there are testimonies that the extraordinary has occurred. Fr. Sebastian Alvarez in his letter to the Episcopal See of Durango, dated November l6, l8l3, expressed his feelings of the people coming from afar to seek cures for their ailments and the spreading of the fame of their cures, induced many more faithful to come in pilgrimage. He did not mention any specific fact, but something was there. El Santuario has been a place of worship from the beginning - a place to pray, to thank, to ask, to meditate and to experience peace of mind as well as of body.

In time, the mass media paid attention to the little Shrine in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Newspapers from Chicago, Denver, New York and Los Angeles, Time and Newsweek magazines have all taken it upon themselves to inform the public about the Shrine. This has resulted in a considerable flow of mail requesting information about the Shrine. People come to the Santuario in the thousands, close to 300,000 a year. They come to worship the Almighty, to ask for peace in the world and in their hearts, to fulfill a promise, to feel the healing touch of God.

El Santuario (The Shrine) was built between l8l4 and l8l6. The "miraculous" crucifix of Our Lord of Esquipulas was found around l8l0. There is no written testimony concerning the apparition of Our Lord in the Chimayo area. What we have is tradition passed from one generation to another by the people of El Potrero. Here is one account of a "true" story as told by the storyteller.

One tradition recalls that during Holy Week on the night of Good Friday, Don Bernardo Abeyta, who was a member in good standing of the Hermandad de Nuestro Padre Jes6s el Nazareno (Penitentes) was performing the customary penances of the Society around the hills of El Potrero. Suddenly he saw a light springing from one of the slopes of the hills near the Santa Cruz River. Don Bernardo went to the spot and noticed that the shining light was coming from the ground. He started to dig with his bare hands, and there he found a Crucifix. He left it there and called the neighbors to come and venerate the precious finding. A group of men was sent to notify the priest, Fr. Sebastian Alvarez at Santa Cruz.



Upon hearing the extraordinary news, the priest and people set out for Chimayo. When they arrived at the place where the Crucifix was, Fr. Sebastian picked it up and carried it in a joyful procession back to the church. Once in the church, the Crucifix was placed in the niche of the main altar. The next morning, the Crucifix was gone, only to be found in its original location. A second procession was organized and the Crucifix was returned to Santa Cruz, but once again it disappeared, The same thing happened a third time. By then, everyone understood that El Sefior de Esquipulas wanted to remain in Chimayo, and so a small chapel was built.

El Santuario was a privately owned chapel until the year l929. At that time several people from Santa Fe bought it and turned it over to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

A more detailed history of El Santuario is available in "EL SANTUARIO on the High Road to Taos" available at the Santuario Gift Shop.

Short Walk

Today Joel and I did a short hike in the Cerrillos Hills Mining District. This is a picture of a mine shaft we were looking into.

We originally went to the mining district 3 years ago - or so - before it was a designated park. We hiked through the hills on a tour before the mines were surrounded by fences. We only had about an hour to walk today, and there are many trails that we can take, so we will go back in the next couple of weeks.

This is a view from one of the higher hills looking into the Cerrillos Valley.

14+ Mile Walk

Today I took the Spur Trail to the Rail Trail and headed toward Lamy. It was a beautiful morning. Not much wind and there were a lot of people on the trail. I saw an old fashioned cowboy with his black wooly horse, I passed a big group of people on mountain bikes, and I passed lots of individual walkers and bikers. It was a really nice morning and reminded me of the bike trips I would take by myself when I lived in Hiawatha, IA in 1993.

Here is a link to the Cedar Valley Nature Trail I took in Iowa.

Yesterday I walked to mile marker 8 on the rail trail.

On the walk I finished listening to a book on tape called The Mysterious Incident of a Dog in the Night-Time. The story is told by an autistic boy, whose world is very compartmentalized and fairly devoid of emotional understanding. The logical compartmentalization of every item and incident in his life started to feel quite comfortable by the end of the book.

American Cancer Society

The American Cancer Society sponsors Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walks all over the country.

Making Strides is a noncompetitive walk supporting the American Cancer Society's unique mission to fight cancer on four fronts: research, education, advocacy, and patient services. Hope Starts Here. The walks happen throughout the country, throughout the year, and are typically five miles or 5K in length. This year, there will be more than 100 walks taking place throughout the nation.

You can find a walk in your area by following this link.


If you are in New Mexico, it is the perfect time to start thinking about walking in the Making Strides walk in Albuquerque on April 30th. Here is the Albuquerque event website.

My family is going to be walking with the Central United Methodist team. You can join our team or make a donation to the team on this website.

Sunday Walk

Joel and I did the Spur Trail this morning - 6.8 miles round trip. It was a little windy, but a nice New Mexico blue sky clear day.



Here we are at the end of the Spur Trail.

Saturday Walk

I walked about 12 miles on Saturday. I took the Spur trail to the county trail and turned toward Santa Fe. It was a pretty hilly walk. The last 4 miles of the walk were the hardest. The wind really picked up and it started to snow. About 3 miles from the car I saw a coyote. He ran out on to the trail, and I got scared because I expected the typical dog reaction. Instead of staring at me and then running toward me, he looked at me and ran away into the wooded area. He was beautiful. He looked really healthy and had a sleek coat of fur. Even though the weather was stormy, the snow and rain made the air smell like dirt - so fresh...

Here are some pictures from my trip.



This is a train bridge. It is a strange area of Santa Fe. There are a lot big expensive houses on the hills. This valley, which I think is equally beautiful, is filled with mobile homes and little shanty houses.



This is a rest break at the 3.4 mile point in the walk.