Let's Prove Her Wrong!

It’s August 11^th, and there is only 6 more full days to raise money (that counts before the walk) for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure.  I spent a lot of my day today reflecting on everything breast cancer.  My mom was diagnosed a little over 5 months ago.  Crazy to think it has already been that long.  This whole process of being a part of the 3-Day has been one of the best experiences of my life, and the walk isn’t even here yet!  The other day I posted on Facebook that our team was $90 away from reaching our goal of $20,000.  I remember the day that I decided to do the walk so clearly.  I made our team goal $9,200 (4 walkers times the required $2,300 to walk) and I honestly thought there was no way that we would ever get to that amount.  I was so nervous about raising $2,300 to be eligible to walk.  I knew that I would do whatever it took though, my mom just so happens to be one of my biggest passions in this short but sweet life.  And, I have always loved a good fundraiser.  My mom still talks about when I was in 4^th grade and was raising money for my elementary school.  I went to St. John the Baptist.  And here again, I had a lot of motivation.  If we raised a certain amount as a school we got a non-uniform day.  I would do just about anything to get out of wearing my blue plaid jumper to school.  So, my best friend Anne and I (she didn’t even go to my school, but I recruited her to help) started making calls all over town.  We decided to not only go door to door like my classmates were doing, but additionally go to the businesses that had the big money.  We started calling locally at first, mostly restaurants and then started calling big corporate companies like AT&T (we had the Yellow Pages out, that was when we still used phone books).  Why the heck we thought we should called AT&T as fourth graders was beyond me but I am impressed to this day that we did.  It’s quite comical actually (maybe just to me, could be one of those you had to be there moments), after talking to several people I finally got a no, at which time I proceeded to tell them that we were going to switch our phone service over to Sprint.  So we didn’t get AT&T but we surprisingly did get a lot of money from local businesses and a few gift certificates as well.   And we got our non-uniform day, whoo hoo!  Then there was the DARE Bike-a-thon.  Jumping ahead to 5^th grade, whoever raised the most money at St. John’s received a $200 gift certificate to Rosedale Mall, motivation strikes again (and of course, I was definitely into keeping kids off drugs).  I raised the most money in my school, 1^st through 8^th grade.  I remember biking those 16 miles to this day, it seemed ridiculously far as a kid.  But it was worth it, I had secret plans for my two $100 gift certificates.  I went into Claire’s and bought a pencil (the cheapest thing I could find in the store) with each certificate and received cash back.  I used the money to buy a plane ticket to fly by myself to visit my aunt and uncle and cousins in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Good for a laugh...Made my shirt and likely did my own hair!

Thank goodness I have matured a lot since my younger fundraising days, my motivations for raising money for breast cancer are a lot less shallow.  All I want is to see a world without breast cancer in my lifetime.  I don’t want anyone to ever go through what I have watched my mom go through, and a few of my friend’s mothers.  My mom just got done with her first round of chemo.  She is now on a break period before she goes in for her third surgery.   She agonizes daily over all the extremely tough decisions that go along with this whole process.  My mom isn’t known for her decision-making skills (and I must say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree), let alone decision that have life and death consequences.  After her next surgery she will have another 9 months of chemotherapy.  It makes me sick to my stomach thinking how long the road still is ahead, but I can’t thank all of you enough for making the last five months as positive as they possibly could be.  Every single donation that comes through gives my mom and our family renewed energy. I thank God numerous times daily for her amazing attitude; I know that it goes so far.  She is always so cheerful and positive; she really is an incredible, incredible woman.  And she’s definitely a fighter as well, no matter how many times she gets knocked down by this horrific disease she will always get back up.  And I think a lot of her strength comes from all of our family and friends (YOU reading this) giving her unbelievable support.  She doesn’t want me sharing a lot of the gory details on here, but writing this blog is so therapeutic for me.  My mom hasn’t had hair for a long time, but she has to be the cutest thing ever in her little hats she wears around the house.  She is so beautiful.  The best moments of my days are when she’s in her hat and her glasses (wish I could put a picture up but I think I would have to sleep with one eye open if I did) and gives me a big hug and kiss goodnight.  My mom gives the best hugs.

My only complaint about my mom right now (and it’s not really even a complaint, it’s just late and I can’t think of a better word) is that she doesn’t think it’s possible for me to get to my personal goal for this walk of $15,000.  As I sit here typing I am at $12,259, which leaves $2,741 to go.  That is a heck of a lot of money.  But if there is one thing that I have learned from all of this is to not underestimate you guys, my family and friends.  My personal goal started at $2,300, I raised it to $3,000, then to $5,000, to $8,000, $10,000 and now $15,000.  Can we do it?  I’m not sure, $2,741 is a ton of money to raise in 6 days.  But I never thought it would be possible to reach $12,000 either.  Please help me prove my mom wrong. 

I’ve had a fortune from a Leeann Chin fortune cookie on my car’s dashboard for a few years now, it says, “If you think you can, you can.” I need to remind myself of that everyday.  I think I can do this.  I think we can do this.  PLEASE HELP ME DO THIS!!!!  If any of you reading this can spare a few dollars to make lives better for those suffering from breast cancer, please, please, please donate.  It is in all of our best interest to not only fund research to get rid of this awful cancer, but to also give support and help make the lives a little bit easier for those currently fighting it.  None of us know when or if breast cancer will strike someone close to us, or even invade our own bodies.  I am so humbled to be a part of the Susan G. Komen mission.

Green 8GB iPod Nano Touch

And last but not least, a really generous friend of mine donated an ipod for me to give away for a donation.  THANK YOU, JIMMY!!!  So the highest donation up to Wednesday, August 17th at 11:59pm will win it!!!  It's an green 8GB iPod Nano touch, retail price $149.   Remember, this is for charity so you can write your donation off ;)

www.the3day.org/goto/sarahfrakes  <-----Click here to HELP/DONATE!!!!!

www.the3day.org/goto/rackonteurs  <-----Our team page



Sarah