LINDA’S W.I.S.H

Linda Kacmarsky was Frank Kacmarsky’s best friend from the time they married in 1970, to the day she passed away last year from uterine cancer. Actually, they became good friends even before their wedding day when they met at a small advertising agency they worked for in New Brunswick, NJ. Frank won a special place in Linda’s heart when Frank convinced his boss to keep Linda on when an economic downturn and resulting layoffs at the firm put her job in jeopardy!

In 2000, Linda was diagnosed with breast cancer, but was able to beat it. Linda was so grateful for her recovery that she participated in the Avon Three-Day walk in New York City for three consecutive years. When they moved to Anthem in 2003, Linda was determined to travel back to New York to walk again in the breast cancer fundraiser, but Frank noticed that Phoenix was going to have its first breast cancer walk and she wouldn’t have to travel so far.

Although they were new to Anthem – and so was everyone else in this newly developed community – Linda went about seeing if she could get someone else to walk with her. Well, she did, and that person was Pat Drapac. Together, she and Pat gathered up a total of 38 walkers that year – a very impressive start to what would become a well-organized and successful fundraising organization for breast cancer – Team W.I.S.H. (Walking In Spirit and Hope). By 2010, Team W.I.S.H. had raised over a million dollars for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure annual walk in Phoenix!

To raise funds to support the annual walk in October of every year, a 5K walk/run event has been held every year at the Ironwood Golf & Country Club in Anthem. Peni Long and several of her friends were the founders of this popular annual event. This year, on the 10th anniversary of the Ironwood walk, it is being rechristened as “Linda’s W.I.S.H.” by the Team W.I.S.H. members.

Faxitron X-Ray, LLC, which specializes in digital imaging ultrasound / x-ray scanners for hospitals, will be the event’s tee-shirt sponsor. Faxitron’s mission is to promote better women’s health care. Anthem resident, Bob Dockendorff, is the CEO of the company. DLC Resources, the Club’s landscape management company, is donating the bottled water. Anthem Golf and Country Club is providing the breakfast treats, golf carts, staff, and the golf course “track.” The Boulder Creek High School Spirit Team Booster Club, wearing special pink tee shirts and hair bows, will be there to cheer on the walk participants.

“Last year, with your help and the support of imagesAZ magazine, 500 men, women, children, Boy Scouts, and Girl Scouts, participated in the 9th annual Breast Cancer Walk/Run held at Ironwood. This year, our goal is to have over 700 participants,” declared Co-Captain Dyanne Rice Mogan. “The local support we receive is overwhelming and it is our goal to achieve an even greater community involvement with this family day at Linda’s W.I.S.H.”

Dyanne continues: “At last year’s Ironwood Walk, Linda asked cancer survivors to join hands and form a ‘survivors circle.’ Then  she turned to the 500 or so participants and said: ‘I ask all participants to look around you…this could be someone who knows grief and loss, someone who knows the wrenching sickness of breast cancer or someone who simply wants to make a difference. As long as there is someone who calls herself a survivor – we are all survivors. Believe that you are people who are willing to fight for a cause that matters deeply to you. Believe that you are people who are willing to look at each other and say, I share your commitment. I pledge that you are not alone in the fight against breast cancer.  I believe in your hope that everyone deserves a lifetime. And finally, I share your dream of a world without breast cancer.’”

“Linda’s ‘pink sneakers’ are near-impossible shoes to fill, but her legacy continues. Team W.I.S.H. invites our community to walk in spirit and hope. Let’s stamp out cancer!”

Dyanne Rice Mogan & Carol Stacy, Co-Captains Team W.I.S.H.  Arizona 

623-512-1547; Fax: 623-266-4145

www.teamwisharizona.org