Testimonials

MY JOURNEY WITH TOMORROW'S HOPE

Tomorrow's Hope! What a unique and appropriate title-our lives need to be filled with hope and certainly the ultimate hope is for steady progress toward a cure for life limiting illnesses.

I am a twenty seven year survivor. When I was thirty six years old I was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a radical mastectomy followed by one year of chemotherapy. I am so very fortunate.

I truly believe I am a survivor, not by luck but because of the hope, prayers, love and support of my family, friends and co-workers-----also a positive attitude helps.

We should all be very grateful that someone had the inspiration for our Tomorrow's Hope. There are so very many families are affected by life limiting illness. Our family, like so many others has been affected by cancer, heart disease diabetes and even the complications of Alzheimer 's disease.

My niece Janet, from Alabama, attended our event in 2006 and was so impressed that she suggested our family form a team. We asked my parents to sponsor a family team and they didn't hesitate. Hence – in 2007 "Grandpa and Granma Schmidt's Superstars'" hit the track.

What an exciting time getting organized. Raising money, designing a logo for our t-shirts, picking out a campsite, who will bring what snacks, who has a fire pit and who has tents. My niece Jane took care of the campsite and fire pit. My niece Janet, designed our logo which consisted of a large five-star. Each point of the star was a symbol of my parents children and their spouses. The third, fourth and fifth generations were symbolized three sizes of smaller stars. All of this in order to support our Tomorrow's Hope.

One sad note was that the Grandpa part of the team died from complications of congested heart failure just three weeks before our team's first event.

At our family gathering after Grandpa's burial, the great grandchildren decided to raise money for Tomorrow's Hope. They approached family members and were selling clover and pages of tongue twisters they wrote. They were so proud of their $40 donation.

This year in our campsite our family was fortunate to be represented by forty plus family members including four generations.

The first year I walked the survivor's lap, I was not prepared for how deeply it would affect me. The powerful theme from "Rocky' was playing and I realized people were applauding us and I actually felt like a champion and also felt so emotional to be sharing the lap with so many other courageous people.

One of my favorite times at Walk Fest is when, in the middle of the night, I can walk around the track and see all the Candles of Hope. It certainly reminds me of how many people in our area have died or are still battling their illness. Generally I'm privileged to have a family member share this time with me. It still surprises me when I see my name on a luminary.

It is so amazing to see all of the teams, families, sponsors and volunteers who gather each year to offer "hope"was, is and will be so very important and just think of how often we say "I hope and pray�. These two words just seem to fit together.

"Hope"- that we will never be faced with life limiting illness.

"Hope"- that is we are diagnosed a cure or remission will be in the future

"Hope"- that there will be not recurrence.

"Hope"- that the complication of treatments won't be too harsh.

"Hope"- that the impact of the illness won't be too hard on our families and support system.

"Hope"- that none of our loved ones will be faced with such a challenge.

"Hope"- that we can participate in the next Tomorrow's Hope Walk Fest.

"Hope"- that if no cure is to be and there will be no improvement, we will be allowed to have a pain free and dignified death.

"Hope"- that our loved ones will be able to cope.

"Hope"- that God will welcome us unconditionally.