Foothill Knights Lacrosse players on Team Impact are planning to walk the Breast Cancer 3-day to raise funds and awareness of breast cancer. Front row: David Ekstrom, Brenton Bader, Connor Cummins, Trevor Brown. Back row: Sean Feeney, Cole Sutliff, Dillon Hughes and Matt Seastrom. ELYSSE JAMES, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The Breast Cancer 3-Day saved Lori Feeney’s life.
Foothill Knights Lacrosse Defenseman Sean Feeney has been waiting a few years to form a team. Now that he's 16, he gathered his friends, mostly fellow lacrosse players from Foothill High School, and formed Team Impact, which will walk 60 miles to benefit the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walk for the Cure. Photo by LaxBuzz
(From Orange County Register article) Now her son is ready to follow in her footsteps, taking Foothill High School’s Team Impact to San Diego for this year’s three-day walk.
Lori Feeney walked the 60 miles four years ago with friends. The message of early detection sunk in, so she scheduled a mammogram despite being younger than 40. A month later, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
The next year, Feeney gathered a group of 18 Tustin women to again walk the Breast Cancer 3-Day, this time as a survivor.
Her son, Sean Feeney, has been waiting a few years to form a team. Now that he’s 16, he gathered his friends, mostly fellow lacrosse players from Foothill High School, and formed Team Impact.
“It’s inspiring watching Mrs. Feeney go through it and knowing what it’s like has been the reason behind all of this,” said Trevor Brown, 16, a junior at Pacific Coast High School. “She survived and she’s the testament.”
The boys will join thousands of others in walking the 15 to 22 miles each day. They will eat, relax, shower and camp overnight in 2-person tents with the other walkers.
Brown and Feeney are joined by Erik Adamson, Brenton Bader, Connor Cummins, Eric Doyle, David Ekstrom, Brooks Freeman, Brad Gustafson, Dillon Hughes, Nicholas Kos, Matt Seastrom and Cole Sutliff.
The walk begins Nov. 20 at the Del Mar Fairgrounds. Walkers will pass through Del Mar and Torrey Pines, La Jolla, Mission Bay Park, Ocean Beach, Point Loma, Sunset Cliffs, Mission Beach, Pacific Beach, Old Town and Downtown San Diego.
The walk ends in the East Village at Petco Park on Nov. 22.
Team Impact won’t be the only group representing Tustin in the walk. Danielle Murrieta has been participating since 2002.
“After you do one, you always do the walk,” the Tustin resident said. “It’s so meaningful and you get so much out of it.”
Her father joined the group of five last year and dubbed the team 2nd Base Umpires, after seeing another group wearing “Save Second Base” buttons. The 2nd Base Umpires are made up of Murrieta, her father, Jack Murrieta, and friends Debbie Anderson, Alyssa Burns and Laurie Maguire.
The 3-day is a grueling exercise resulting in sore, swollen feet, blisters and exhaustion, and the boys don’t yet appreciate the physical challenge, Lori Feeney said.
“You hurt. You want to give up, then you see someone who’s gone through chemo walking and think, ‘Hey, what they’ve gone through is far greater than what you’re going through now,’” Murrieta said. She’s been training by taking short walks during the week and long walks on weekends.
You need good shoes and socks and proper clothes, she said.
The boys think they can walk in Vans sneakers, joked Lori Feeney.
“We’re in pretty good shape from sports,” Sean Feeney said.
This year, training isn’t the only difficult part. The economic climate has made it more difficult to raise the $2,300 per walker necessary to participate, Murrieta said.
Team Impact is about halfway to its goal of $23,000. Proceeds benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund.
“It’s amazing, and inspiring,” Lori Feeney said. “I don’t know a lot of 16- and 17-year-old boys who would take time out of their lives to take a couple months to fund-raise and participate. It’s a pretty inspiring thing.”
The boys have been raising money by talking to neighbors and friends, and writing letters asking for donations, said Cole Sutcliff, 16, of Foothill High.
“It’s hard, but it’s worth it,” 16-year-old Foothill student David Ekstrom said of the fundraising.
Not many men participate in the 3-day walk, Murrieta said. The walk is dominated by women, with the occasional husband or brother, or fellow breast cancer survivor.
“It’s encouraging to see men walking. They’ll clearly have an impact. It’ll be an inspiration to the women,” said David’s mother, Patty Ekstrom.
And the walk is a great place to make friends. Murrieta met one of her closest friends at a Breast Cancer 3-Day.
“Everyone at the walk is kind and generous,” Murrieta said. “The type of person out there makes you think, ‘If the world could be like this we’d be in a different place.’”
At the finish line, walkers stand shoulder to shoulder to cheer on those who are finishing.
“When you see everybody’s face, when you finally get there, you think, ‘Wow, I really did this.’ It’s very emotional,” Murrieta said.
Sean Feeney is looking forward to meeting his mother at the finish line.
“Now we get to feel the sense of accomplishment at the end instead of being the people rooting them on,” Sean Feeney said.
Thousands of women and men come together, each raising money for Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund. Then they take their commitment to end breast cancer one step further and walk 60 miles over the course of three days.
Eighty-five percent of the net proceeds of this event go to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
The remaining fifteen percent of net funds goes to the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund to provide a permanent endowment for ongoing support of breast cancer initiatives.
http://www.ocregister.com/news/feeney-219162-walk-breast.html
“Coach Connover is great,” Levitan said. “Everything we do with him is fun and laid back but all of his teams definitely get the job done.”
laxbuzz
