Q: What's the concept of the
walker
"community?"
jane:
Once you sign up for the Avon Walk, you've become a part of a
"process", much bigger than "the event" itself
(Walking from SJ to SF or X to Y). As a part of this process, you
join a community of people, all working for the same cause, though with
pretty different stimuli for having gotten involved--families/friends of
victims/survivors, women and their partners concerned with the disease
itself, people who want to use it to get/stay in shape, people looking for
companions and new friends, etc. And the COMMUNITY begins to grow.
Anyway, then you train whatever way you train, by yourself in Seattle
(Sandy!), leading walks (Paul, Dean and MJ, Lisa, Diane, Tracy, etc.) lots
of miles or a few, during which the community spirit begins to take
shape--you discuss with others who are likewise committed (and should be!)
the why, how, why not? aspects of "doing this"; you share fears,
hopes, blister remedies, Luna over Power, Cliffs over Balance, etc. and
you get to know (intimately in some cases) the people who will be doing
"the event" with you. And the COMMUNITY continues to grow.
You get on this listserve, and lurk or are very active or somewhere in the
middle, and you learn from others, clench your teeth at times, smile,
laugh out loud, and you get to know names and perspectives (though not
faces), unless you put them together with the people on the training walks
(above) and the COMMUNITY continues to grow
You wear your shirt, or hat, or button "out" in the world, and
people ask you about it and you tell them what you're doing. And the
COMMUNITY grows some more from awareness.
You send out your pledge letters and people you wouldn't have thought
would support you DO. And the COMMUNITY grows some more.
Then, in the days leading up to "the event", you share your last
minute hopes, fears, silly stories about struggling into your mummy bags
(Fred and others) and you decide at least the on-line portion of the
community should have an identity, the "blue squares"
phenomenon". You even post some 250 messages just prior to the
walk (Tuesday the 26th I think it was) supporting or not supporting the
"etiquette" of this list serve". And the COMMUNITY
gels and bonds and then....
It's Day 0 and we all "meet" at DeAnza and the blue squares are
in evidence and the Cookie Goddess is there and so is Breathless in
Seattle and Phred and Tigress and....the COMMUNITY joins with the other
2500 who have no idea we've all "met" over this listserve for
months prior to REALLY meeting. And the COMMUNITY moves out for one
last night of sleep in real beds.
And then "the event": Nuf has been said, but we each
experience it differently and, the COMMUNITY grows from the thousands who
saw us through the neighborhoods, cheering us along the Great Highway and
Presidio Blvd. And our friends and family welcome us to the Marina Green,
and we wave shoes in the (warm) air, and a plane flies overhead, and we go
home tired, happy, triumphant and DEFINITELY A COMMUNITY, our families and
friends finally understanding WHAT THIS HAS BEEN ALL ABOUT.
And we pass months right after "the event" and we wear our new
shirts, and we tell more people about what we did, and we talk on the
listserve and we begin to think whether we will or won't walk next July
and we see the displays go up in our favorite coffee shop or store and
regardless of our decisions for next year, we STILL are a COMMUNITY.
And some of us go down to LA and cheer ourselves hoarse in the rain and
cold and we contribute again to the COMMUNITY. (And commit to
ourselves that Skyline was a piece of cake!)
The POINT OF COMMUNITY?
The Walk is NOT an experience that EVER leaves you. Why?
Because we came together, mostly a bunch of strangers, who did something
HUGE. Along with others who came together the same way in other
cities, we continue to share a commitment to a cause and to the people we
know believed in that cause enough to sign up, raise money, get ready, and
DO IT TOGETHER. We, the Crew who supported us, and the organizations
that made it possible ARE THAT COMMUNITY.
They're right: It's a "once in a lifetime experience".
You can "do it" again and again, but the first time for each of
us is the defining moment of
having become part of something truly bigger than ourselves: A COMMUNITY
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