It was a perfect weekend for a bike ride and 5k and the city of San Jose was certainly welcoming. We had 1620 riders, 1520 runners and 600 volunteers totaling 3740 participants collectively raise $1.3 million dollars! Way to go San Jose!
Saturday was typical in having the Village where folks could stop by and visit some of our great sponsors, Merchandise Trailer for the latest LIVESTRONG gear, packet pick up and share their story in the Mission Booth. However, the whole weekend I was looking forward to Saturday night as Carly Fiorina spoke at our Fundraising Appreciation dinner. She was the former CEO of HP and the author of the book Tough Choices, one of my favorite books on leadership. Carly is also a breast cancer survivor and thriver as she completed her last chemotherapy treatment Tuesday prior to Challenge weekend. That evening she spoke on fear and how differently she views fear in her life now having gone through cancer. She mentioned never knowing how much she was loved until diagnosed with cancer and that the blessings came from family and from an outpouring of strangers. If you’ve gone through cancer, or have been a care taker, you certainly know this to be true. Near the end as we allowed folks to ask a few questions she said “Cancer was not tragic…moments of fear, alone, and hard but not tragic. A lot of joy and blessing along the way.”
One of her final thoughts for us she mentioned the community she belongs to now and how she wants to always stay a part of that community in order to remember all those blessings. In essence that is what LIVESTRONG is….it is a community ready to take on cancer with no fear. We stand with one another through our own individual journeys and fight. Game on Cancer.
Thanks so much San Jose riders and runners! Next stop…Philadelphia!!
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