Passionately Pink Teachers - Avon Walk - Saturday

We had to be at the shuttle at 5:15 a.m. to be taken to Studde Park where the opening ceremony took place. One of our very own teachers, Eric Patton, was one of the opening speakers, addressing thousands. Here is what he said, "I’m walking this weekend with my daughter because my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer in June of 2007, when she had no insurance. Our community clinic led us to The Rose, an Avon Foundation beneficiary here in Houston. They took great care of us until our insurance kicked in, but we still couldn’t afford the deductible. Without me knowing it, teachers at the school where I teach chipped in so that my wife could have her mastectomy. And most of the money we’ve raised for this event has come from the parents, kids and friends of our school. Because of them, and because of the money you’ve raised to support organizations like The Rose, my wife’s life was saved. My name is Eric Patton and this is the Avon Walk for my wife, Ina."

There were several other speakers. We were told how every three minutes another woman is diagnosed with breast cancer. To represent this they handed out large pink pagent type ribbons every three minutes to be worn for the rest of the weekend. We then saw all of the walkers that were survivors. It was a very moving experience.

There were lots of funny team names like Texans for TaTas, The Queen Boo-Bees, etc... It was very encouraging to see how many teens came out to line the streets with signs, cheers, high fives, etc... There was one particular young man that drove the route hundreds if not thousands of times over the weekend with a decorated car and a bull horn blasting loud music like "Pretty Woman", "Respect", "Celebration", and then he would also yell into the bull horn wonderful encouraging words to keep going. He was there because his mom suffered from breast cancer. There were funny sayings along the path such as, "Walking men are better support than a sports bra."

We ended day one, went back to the hotel to get cleaned up and then had dinner at Maggiano's.

Unfortunately, my roommate and I were both sick from either allergies, sinuses, or something all night. We were miserable and got about two hours of sleep before getting back up at 4:40 again.