Women are creative fundraisers for cancer walk
'We walk for the people that we lost so they didn't die in vain.' - Maureen Jones Breast cancer survivor
By Michelle Knight knight@theacorn.com

DOING HER PART- Maureen Jones, above, counts bags of recyclable items while Suzanne Walker, right, separates the recyclables at Jones' home in Camarillo last Saturday. The women and five of their friends are members of Healthy Hooters, a volunteer team, and plan to participate in the Los Angeles Avon Breast Cancer Walk in September. In an effort to reach and exceed the $1,800 commitment required of each participant, the women are coming up with innovative ways to raise money.

Maureen Jones and Kathy Wallis-Dari are thinking outside the recycling box when it comes to raising money to fight breast cancer.

The women- members of a local team who plan to participate in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Los Angeles Sept. 13, 14- are coming up with innovative ways to meet the $1,800 each participant must commit to raising.

The 2008 Avon Walk will take place in nine U.S. cities, starting this month in Houston, Texas, and ending in Charlotte, N.C., in October. Participants can walk either a marathon- 26 miles- or a halfmarathon over the weekend event.

Photos by WENDY PIERRO/Acorn Newspapers

"We walk for the people that we lost so they didn't die in vain," said Jones, a 43yearold Camarillo resident who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005.

Wallis-Dari, her longtime friend, saw the toll that chemotherapy treatments took on Jones, who was so weak and nauseated that she couldn't get out of bed some days. Wallis-Dari was among the friends and family who took Jones to her treatments and fed and cared for her two small children.

"No one should have to go through what Maureen went through," said Wallis-Dari, 36, of Oxnard.

The women are part of the seven-member team known as Healthy Hooters- Everyone Deserves a Pair, and they plan to raise money by their own efforts rather than relying completely on donations.

The seven women are collecting glass, aluminum cans and other items to redeem for money at recycling centers. Recycling has yielded $600 so far.

Wallis-Dari, a manager at Wellpoint in Camarillo, also printed up thank-you notes on her home computer and wrapped them around chocolate bars to sell to her coworkers for $2 each. Every box of 36 bars contributes $72 to the cause.

Three other Wellpoint employees are members of Healthy Hooters and show their solidarity by wearing pink or the Avon breast cancer shirt on Fridays.

Other Wellpoint employees show their support by buying the chocolate bars and contributing recyclable items.

"It's just something that seems to touch everyone's life," said Wallis-Dari about the disease that the National Cancer Institute said will claim the lives of 40,000 women and men this year.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer, besides skin cancer, that afflicts women in the United States. American women have a one in eight chance of developing breast cancer sometime during their lifetime, according to the American Cancer Society. Doctors are expected to diagnose 182,000 new cases in 2008, the cancer education and research agency said.

Healthy Hooters is doing its part to help. On April 12 at 750 Valle Lindo Drive in Camarillo, the team will hold a "Pink Party." Vendors selling jewelry, candles, hobbies and other items will donate part or all of the day's profits to the walk.

The team plans to raise money by crafting and selling Mother's Day corsages and raffling off decorative baskets. Wallis-Dari said they'll also hold yard sales this summer and have a booth with items for sale at the Camarillo Air Show.

Jones and Wallis-Dari were members of last year's Healthy Hooters team, which raised more than $34,000 for the Avon walk. Wallis-Dari remembers the route lined with cheering crowds of people- sorority girls, local firefighters and families with small children.

"It just keeps you walking," said Wallis-Dari, who finished the last six miles with a leg cramp. "It was long; it was hard, and most of us signed up again."

Jones said a "personal vendetta" against breast cancer is urging her on.

"I wouldn't wish it on anybody," Jones said.

Regular blood tests and scans have revealed no new tumors for Jones since 2005. But doctors won't declare the cancer in remission until five years of clean tests, she said.

The September walk will mark the third anniversary of her last chemotherapy treatment.

"I'm just doing what I can until I can't do it anymore," Jones said.

Since beginning the walks in 2003, the Avon Foundation has raised nearly $200 million for research to find a cure for breast cancer and to increase education, awareness, screening and diagnosis along with access to medical care and support services for underserved patients.

For more information on team Healthy Hooters- Everyone Deserves a Pair, call Wallis-Dari at (805) 415-2519.