Four women train for 60-mile walk

As clouds darkened the sky and the wind began to howl through Superior last Monday, four women were strapping on their tennis shoes and heading out for an evening walk.

“They recommend that you walk anyway because we don’t know what kind of weather we’re going to have down there,” said Montana Lifesaver Jerri Bullock about their evening stroll.

The Montana Lifesavers consist of four women who are training for a three-day, 60-mile walk in Phoenix Arizona to raise money for breast cancer research on November 14 through 16.

“I wanted to look into it and I wanted to make a difference because I was inspired,” Bullock said, who claims responsibility for talking the other three ladies into joining her on her trek.

Bullock retires from the Forest Service this Friday and she said that now seemed like a perfect time to take on the walk, which is something she has always wanted to do.

Bullock’s daughter-in-law Muffy Bullock, sister Connie Lemon and friend Diane Magone have all stepped up to help train for the event.

All of the Montana Lifesavers live in Mineral County, except for Lemon, who is a school teacher in Sacramento.

Apart from walking 60 miles in three days, the four ladies will have to raise at least $2,200 a piece to participate in the Phoenix Breast Cancer 3-Day. They started their fundraising at the Mineral County Fair early this month with a 50/50 drawing that raised more than $1,100.

Jerri Bullock said that Sharyn Lincoln, the winner of the drawing, would have won $550 had she not donated the money right back to their cause.

“She looked at me and said, ‘I’m so happy I won. What do you want to do with the money?’” recalled Bullock.

All told, the group says they only have about enough for one person to go on the walk, but they plan to hold another raffle in October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and other fund raisers as time allows.

“We’ve had some really generous support,” Muffy Bullock said.

On top of the $2,200 each team member has to raise they will have to come up with air fare, a $95 registration fee and possibly a hotel stay for the evening before the event.

Despite the cost, the Montana Lifesavers have decided to pay for their airfare and hotel rooms out of their own pockets.

“We want all of our fundraising to go directly to the cause,” Bullock said.

She added that some people have donated flight miles to lessen the cost of their airline tickets but all of their donated cash will go directly to the event.

While on their 60-mile trek, the Montana Lifesavers will be staying at camps that are broken down and set up by teams of volunteers at different points throughout the walk. All of their food, lodging and even a first aid team will be supplied for them.

“They have a great crew of volunteers that moves the camp for you,” Lemon said.

Of all of the money raised from the event, 85 percent will go to the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation and the remainder will go to the National Philanthropic Trust. The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation is the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists and has donated over $1 billion to help find a cure for cancer. The National Philanthropic Trust will use the money donated for an endowment fund that provides long-term support for breast cancer activities and research.

While all of the Montana Lifesavers are excited about the final event in November, for now, they have a lot of training to do. They have been provided with a training schedule that takes them on four different walks each week of increasing lengths.

“As the walks get longer you have to time it because 10 and 12 miles can take a long time,” Bullock said.

So far, Bullock has been running as many of the walks as she can.

“So far I’ve been running the training schedule, but we’ll see how far that goes,” Bullock said, laughing.

Despite the difficulty, the team said they have steadily improved by following their training schedules. They do not expect to have any trouble when it comes time for the big event.

“When you started five miles was the long walk and now it’s the one I save for the end of the week,” Bullock added.

While they cannot always do their walks together, especially since Lemon lives so far away, the team tries to keep in touch and encourage each other throughout their training.

“We may not always walk or train together but we do try to connect and support each other throughout the process,” Jerri Bullock said.

Lemon has also looked into joining up with other groups in the Sacramento area that are participating in the event but for the past week she walked with the rest of the Montana Lifesavers while she visited Bullock in Superior.

Jerri Bullock is a breast cancer survivor. Each team member knows someone or has a relative who has been affected by the illness.

“We don’t want her to have to go through that,” Bullock said, pointing to her granddaughter, Kate Bullock, who helps the Montana Lifesavers fund raise and train. “So the more money that can be put into breast cancer now, the better.”