Be THE TOP FUNDRAISER by Midnight tomorrow, February 17th, and you will win something very cool. I don’t know what it is yet, but it will be worth the effort. I promise it won’t be a keychain.

Flipping the tradition.

I started this tradition a few years ago of giving to other people on my birthday. I took it a step further and made a gift to one of my favorite causes. I highly recommend doing both of these on your birthday. It is fun to give and makes people happy. Try it. You’ll see.

The Birthday Wish. 

Why not get others to do good on their birthday? Athletes for Cancer has created a giving campaign where you recruit friends to give something meaningful and full of impact to you for your birthday, while giving the GIFT of LIFE to those battling and rebuilding lives after cancer.  It’s a multi-benefit gesture that’s a win-win for EVERYONE. Prizes will be awarded each month for the top birthday fundraisers!

Watch something. 

Have no idea why we’re fundraising? Here’s why. It’s the best way for me to communicate the impact of our program. Thank you to Soul Surf Media for the dedication and heart that went into this and to all of you for your support in rebuilding lives after cancer.

The Annual Paddle 4 Cancer is coming to Portlandia September 1, 2012

Athletes for Cancer is taking this year’s Paddle 4 Cancer to downtown Portland, Oregon, on the Willamette River. This annual test of physical and mental endurance, challenge, and fun will benefit Athletes for Cancer’s Survivorship Program.

Director Tonia Farman, on moving the event from the Columbia River Gorge:

“We can’t wait to bring this event to Portland! The eclectic culture, growing paddling community, and passion for health and environment is a great fit for Paddle 4 Cancer. The setting, surrounded by the city and all its bridges, provides great visibility for spectators and a unique urban paddling experience. And, it’s a cool city!”

This year we are opening up participation to SUP, paddleboards, and kayaks. There will be great prizes, great Pacific Northwest food, live music, a Boards of Hope auction and other fun activities planned!  The Willamette River offers a friendly setting for all levels of paddlers to participate.

Having raised over $250,000 for cancer programs up and down the west coast since its first year, Athletes for Cancer’s SUP 4 Cancer and Kiteboarding 4 Cancer events have blended the health and passion of the action sport community with the needs of the cancer care community for an amazing benefit.

The 2012 Paddle 4 Cancer will benefit Athletes for Cancer’s SUP & Surf Survivorship Program for adolescents and young adults with cancer. Cancer turns life upside down physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Athletes for Cancer empowers cancer fighters and survivors to find healing and life-renewal in the surf and snow environments through surfing, standup paddling, outrigger canoeing, and snowboarding. A4C’s goal is to transform survivor outlook on life, empower them to find confidence to thrive, succeed and inspire others facing cancer to do the same. Watch it here:

Athletes for Cancer is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization, IRS tax ID #42-1737854. We fund our programs and charities solely through tax-deductible contributions from private individuals, corporations and foundations. Please contact Tonia Farman, tonia at athletes4cancer.org for sponsorship opportunities.

Here’s how it works: Skiiers/snowboarders measure and log the vertical feet they cover over the 3 months while recruiting donations from friends and family based on how much they ride. Very cool and fun!

Why we like the Team Duke Vertical Challenge: The funds raised go to programs like ours, that directly help people battling cancer RIGHT NOW. In fact, A4C is putting on our first SNOWBOARD Survivorship Camp this April! What a great fundraising program that might just help send someone to camp!

Teaming up with Mt. Hood Meadows Ski & Snowboard School to provide professional snowboarding instruction and support, and Cooper Spur for accommodations, Athletes for Cancer will run our first Snow Survivorship Camp April 15-21 at Mt. Hood Meadows. Snowboard instruction will focus on safety, fundamentals, and having fun. The camp will run for 7 days including your 2 travel days and 5 days of instruction and adventure.

Applications are open to cancer fighters and survivors who have been diagnosed between the ages of 18 and 39. A4C camps are FREE for accepted applicants to attend. No, you do not have to be any sort of athlete to attend! We accept all levels of physical fitness and ability! Airfare is not included.

Learn more about our Survivorship Program or Apply NOW! Want to pay it forward for someone fighting cancer to attend camp? Donate Now.

reflection?

both

[although this is the last post, it was the first one i wrote. it is the most personal, and it is a thank you. for that first ohana who was there for me and gave me SO MUCH support and love back in April. a thank you to the staff; the three that truly completed this journey with me, the ones that were there for both camps. and it's a thank you to the ohana from this last camp, for loving me and accepting me and my journey. I am SO, truly, grateful for each of you.]

Part Three.

Reflecting on that week is taking time. Just when it feels like it went by too quick, almost as if it never happened, you realize that it did. That you spent a week in Maui, on of the most beautiful place in the world, meeting THE most amazing people in the world. I have already told everyone with ears about those I was honored to share the week with. About their stories, their fights, their courage and their spirit. Going to Maui was not a vacation. It wasn’t a time to get away from the real world, it was a time to help us all see what our real world really could encompass. Not just the surf and sand and endless sunshine… I think we all learned what was possible. We learned that we could surf, tell our stories, conquer fears and believe in the future.

Yes this was my epic return to the island. It was my chance to live this journey as the person… no the SURVIVOR that I was not 6 months ago. This journey, this island, THIS organization has given me life. I was not living before. I was lost and confused. I thought I knew what I wanted, but I didn’t know how to get there. I didn’t know what MY STORY was… and I certainly didn’t know how it related to everyone else. I was lost in a world unable to understand the beauty, love and power that was in front of me.

This return was not to work on my tan, or buy those lost souvenirs. It was to LIVE. The last time I learned that I COULD live, that I COULD survive. This time around I LIVED and SURVIVED. I was able to understand MY STORY. What it meant for me to have survived cancer, which was a constant struggle for me before April 2011. The first camp allowed me to open up, to speak about my experience and to see world through the pieces.

I was worried that for this camp I wouldn’t be able to be the person I had become. That I wouldn’t be able to “walk the walk.” I had felt this difference in myself since April and really did feel like I had changed. But it would only be once I was set with that challenge (again) would I be able to BE ME. To test this theory that I had changed, and to test this newfound life I felt like I had begun to accomplish. Once I stepped foot on that camp, into that world, with those people I was able to feel all of those pieces come together. I felt whole, for the first time in a long time… if ever.

There was this moment at camp when it became clear. When I was given a chance to talk about my story and where I was now. I was in an interview with SingleFin and he mentioned the effect my experience had had on the staff… and how they felt that maybe that had missed something the last time around… that maybe they could have done more, and that I hadn’t left feeling the way they wanted the camps to accomplish. It wasn’t until they received my email did they truly realize the impact they had had on my life. THEN the kicker came… the point where we all knew just how much the camp had helped, had given me back life… SingleFin mentioned that as much as everyone else talked about me and the changes I made while at camp… He couldn’t see “Seafoam” in “Coral.” He couldn’t believe that I had once been that insecure, scared, quiet, and lost person. That I could have ever been the fraction of the person I am now.

It’s weird to have this… “person” be SO much of who you WERE, but not who you ARE… to look in the mirror and feel like that person has gone. I am not demeaning the girl I once was. It was that person, that route, that journey that brought me to the person I am today. I am not perfect, nowhere near it, but that’s not the point. The point is that I love my imperfections. I love my story, my life, and the road I have in front of me. I am not living for tomorrow, I am living for today. I am in the moment and enjoying every second. The previous part of my story may have taken 22 years to get through, but it’s only a page in my book. I have a new story, a new life and a new meaning to being a cancer survivor.

Some people may read this and think that it was just timing, merely just coincidence. That these changes were bound to happen and magically it all came together on vacation at a surf camp in Maui. Those people couldn’t be more wrong. These changes happened because of the program and staff that Tonia “Lolo” has put together. These changes would not have happened without Wilson/Goose calling me out that one night at camp fire. These changes would not have occurred if I hadn’t gone to camp. Learning to surf and SUP gave me confidence and faith that I could try new things. That I could fall AND get up. Being in Maui pushed me out of my comfort zone into wearing that swim suit and learning to be ok with ME (physically). The campers, their stories and most of all their support taught me to be ok with ME… ALL OF ME. My story, my experience, my face, my scars, my life, my dreams. They taught me that no matter what, they were there and I had to trust in that.

All I was trying to do was shoot a 30-second thank-you and it turned into a 3-minute ramble. My husband warns me that I let my emotions wander too much. He’s always so straight and to-the-point. I should have him do these. Oh well. You all have to just deal with it. It’s from the heart, a little rambly, but thorough. I’m sure it will win awards.

Cancer isn’t something that ends when treatment does. Yes, the cancer cells may be gone, but the effects are not. Some may be physical scars, other emotional. There may be entire lifestyle changes, and huge adjustments to overcome once you’re out of the hospital.

A common misconception is this belief that once you’re hair starts to grow back, the scars begin to heal and the chemotherapy stops, you’re OK, you’re back to normal, you’re alive – so live. Adjusting to life after cancer can take many routes, but the most important piece to recovering is a support system.

Going to camp, arriving in Maui and living by the ocean for a week takes you away from the expectations. Not only the expectations others have for you to get back to a normal routine, but the expectations you have for yourself. It’s not uncommon for survivors to want to jump right back into their life, only to see that they can’t. Maybe what they wanted before treatments isn’t the same now, or maybe there are a lot of things they have yet to deal with. Some survivors take the route of leaving their experience and cancer behind them, while others may use it as a catapult to change the world. There is no right or wrong way to live after cancer. But I think everyone at camp was able to find out how to live, and whom they want or need beside them while they do it.

No matter how long it has been since the last treatment, there are always moments of fear, anger, anxiety an insecurity. Cancer survivors become this whole new person, encountered this entire life change, without wanting it. After cancer there is a lot of learning. Learning who you are, who you want to be, and how you’re going to get there. We have to learn to live again. We have to allow other people to see us, all of us. The pieces that are broken, the pieces that are missing, the pieces we want to get back.. and the pieces we’re afraid might never come back.

Being at camp has this ability to surround you with people WHO GET IT. They understand the fears, anger, anxiety and insecurity.  People who get who you are and the struggles that may come next. No matter what you go through, you can easily feel alone. You can isolate yourself from the world, and feel as if no one understands. Although everyone’s experiences are completely unique, there is someone, many people out there who get it.

It is extraordinary how quickly friendships form at camp. It’s amazing how easily it is to talk to someone who understands who you are before you even say hello. I remember talking to one of the campers on the first night. Trying to get to know myself as a survivor, but also trying to get to know this other person. Feeling insecure because my story was not the same, and that I had been blessed with 23 years of surviving while this person was still in the middle of a battle. Yet, in the end… we were so similar. Our diagnosis’s were different, yet we had the same dreams for the future, “planning-centered” mindsets, and hopes to change the world. We both wanted to get back to ‘normal,’ whatever that was, and we were both able to see how the next few days could change us forever.

To be able to see that kind of thing happen over and over throughout the next few days was unbelievable. I think this rings true in any circumstance where you allow yourself to trust others with your story and your heart, but at camp it’s more than that. At camp you find these pieces you didn’t realize were missing because you never actually had them to begin with. You gain this amazing amount of support and love from people who were strangers less than a week ago.

“The best thing to hold onto in life is each other” –Audrey Hepburn

There will always be pictures, and videos, memories and laughs… But none of those can ever replace the people. The amazing friendships made at camp cannot be captured in words or pictures, only with really being there. It’s not often you can spend a week with a group of strangers and leave with an entire new family, best friends and soul mates.

In the end, we will always have each other. Everyone has been pushed to the limit by life, by cancer. There are still points where we want to break, where we feel like we might no matter how hard we try not to. There are times we feel so separated from the others that you’re certain they’ve forgotten. But then you have an amazing day and the first thing you want to do is text Gecko, or Red Cloud or Touchdown. There are times when you’re sitting somewhere and you randomly hear a Disney song and instantly want a smoothie. The crazy looks you get for mentioning that you need to tell Gemini and Honu after you saw a seaturtle bumper sticker. Those moments connect us. They make us feel whole and remind us that we are not alone and that we have each other.

Cancer took a lot from all of us. Beating cancer gave us life, hope and family; A group of people that we will hold on to for the rest of our lives.

Athletes for Cancer’s survivorship camps helped me find WHO I AM, and learn that there are amazing people out there who will love me for me, if i give them a chance.

Missing my o’hana, and craving a smoothie!

Love, Coral

Here is an experience you can give to a loved one that is like no other. What if you gave an experience that changed a life?

Consider giving the gift of an Athletes for Cancer Membership this holiday season.  With a minimum donation of $250, you can give an A4C Membership in someone else’s name so they can experience being an agent of impact, while giving a life-altering experience to someone else.  Recipient receives a shirt, sticker, invitations to special events and opportunities to be more involved. They also receive updates on the impact of our survivorship program that you’ve helped fund.

Or, make a donation in any amount in someone else’s name and they will receive a personal thank-you card and information on the Survivorship Program they are supporting.

Athletes for Cancer is a small organization that thrives on impact and outcome. Each donation truly and positively transforms lives. Thank you for your support.

• April 1-7, 2012 – Surfing & Standup Paddlesurfing : Maui, Hawaii
• November 1-7, 2012 -  Surfing & Standup Paddlesurfing : Maui, Hawaii
• November 11-17, 2012 -  Surfing & Standup Paddlesurfing : Maui, Hawaii

Additional camps may be added for 2012. Check back here for the latest info.

Survivorship Requirements

• ALL LEVELS of physical abilities are welcome to apply!!
• cancer fighters and survivors between the ages of 18 and 40 at time of application
• cancer diagnosis must be after 18th birthday
• submission and approval of survivor application
• submission and approval of medical form completed by doctor
• airfare/transportation to the nearest airport of camp destination is attendee’s responsibility, but food, accommodations, transportation during camp, instruction, and all necessary gear is covered for the week once at camp.