Missing In Action

Kickin' off the festivities!

You know those weeks where you don't even have time to eat, let alone write? I had one of those. Well, I had one and a half of those.

But my disappearance was for a really great cause. A couple of months ago, I left my career in journalism to work for the American Cancer Society full time. The decision to change wasn't easy and I thought long and hard about where I wanted my life to go.

I wondered whether I could serve in both capacities: volunteer and staff. Fortunately, ACS has enough of a variety of programs that the answer was "yes."

So, I was given my portfolio of events, which include Walk & Roll of Lake County, Relay For Life of GLMV and Making Strides Against Breast Cancer of Lake County. These events aim to raise money for the programs and services ACS provides just like my fundraising efforts with DetermiNation.

I took a short break from DetermiNation the past couple of weeks to focus intensely on my very first event: Walk & Roll of Lake County.

It was a learning experience, to say the least. Our tent company arrived hours late to set up and they got there without the site map I sent over. So the end result was our layout being wrong. Fortunately, I'm resourceful and our committee came up with a solution quickly.

Little did we know that was the first of many on-the-fly decisions we would make that day. Shortly after we got everything set up, my boss was in the survivor tent (where we provide information and activities for cancer survivors) when he heard a noise. Seconds later, the top came down. Fortunately, nobody was hurt, but the survivor tent was out of commission until after we kicked off the activities.

Despite that and a few other random mishaps, the day was great. The weather was wonderful and people were happy. At the end of the day, we did something great. We raised more than $60,000 to fight cancer on Saturday. The minor frustrations were well worth it.

Bad things happen and most of the time, you can't do anything about it but decide how you proceed. If there is one thing I've learned from being around and working with cancer survivors it's that we don't always decide how things play out, but we do decide how we respond and react.

When you see that example day after day, it's easy to keep your eye on the prize and remember the purpose of what you do.

This weekend, I felt horrible about not running. After all, I'm running for all of you -for my donors, for the survivors, for those who didn't survive. Then, I mingled with the teams on Saturday. I met people, happy people, who have lived through the most unhappy circumstances. I realized it doesn't matter if I'm running on a trail or running around like a crazy chicken trying to find out how to keep people safe from a collapsing tent, I was still working toward the same goal: more birthdays.

So, as we celebrate the American Cancer Society's 100th birthday on Wednesday, let's all take some time to reflect on our reasons for supporting this organization.

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