Giving is the theme of this post!
I found myself next to Maggie, a 46-year-old mother of two who hails from Clarksville, TN. “I’ve come up here the past three years to join my sister in the 3-Day,” Maggie tells me as she nears the 60 mile marker and the end of her journey. “My grandmother and a couple of aunts battled breast cancer, but this year I am walking for my friend and coworker who had a double-mastectomy last week.” She said that her friend was recovering well.
She didn’t hesitate a second and told me, “I’m going to donate the ten dollars to the Komen 3-Day.” She could use the help too. She is about $900 shy of the minimum pledge amount that walkers agree to which is $2,300. She has a few more days to get donations…why don’t you donate $10 today toward Maggie’s goal! Click here to donate. I just donated another $10 online to her and it only took a couple of seconds. And you’ll love her team name too: One TaTa at a Time.
Back home she works with the Wounded Warrior program at Fort Campbell.
She shared with me that she was deployed to Saudi Arabia in 1991. She and two other women worked along side 300 Sri Lankan men washing all the clothes for the soldiers stationed there. “It was a scary experience,” she said. “There was not a night that I didn’t cry myself to sleep,” as a result of the Scud attacks.
We arrived at the rest station and she got some water and a little rest before making the final steps to the finish line. We hugged and I congratulated her for her walk and commitment to help find a cure for breast cancer. She is a giver. She’s a mother, she serves our country and even finds time to pursue worthy causes like the Komen 3-Day. Let Maggie serve as a role model for all of us.

Can you say hero? (photo: Reed)
As I left I saw a man doing the walk with the help of a prosthetic leg. Tell me that’s not inspiring! Way to go!
On my way home I saw Tommy from Day 230. He seemed to be doing ok but was suffering from depression. He is on medication and is hopeful that he will improve.
By the way, this was 10-10-10 Give a Stranger 10 Bucks Day. I totally forgot to tell Maggie about this. I was so wrapped up in the mobs of marchers that it totally slipped my mind! I do do this every day, so sometimes I kind of shift over to auto-pilot. However, my I met my friend Tricia for lunch and afterwards she gave $10 to my neighbor Howard who walked by!