Tuesday, September 4, 2001

Minneapolis Star Tribune
Story by Chuck Haga

Polly's still walking, now through Asia

"Polly Letofsky, the Minneapolis native attempting to walk around the world to
raise awareness of breast cancer and money for research, flew from Australia
to Singapore this month and now has reached Malaysia.

She's learning a few phrases in Mandarin Chinese and Malay, but she reports a
goof with pronunciation of Mandarin at one gathering, telling everyone to
"pee behind a bush" when she meant to say "thank you."

"You'd think whoever started this language would allow a bigger buffer for
such errors," she wrote in her journal.

Letofsky, 39, started her walk Aug. 1, 1999, near her home in Vail, Colo. She
walked to the coast in southern California, then flew to New Zealand. After
walking the length of both islands, she took a break to reorganize her
management team, then hiked south-to-north through eastern Australia.

She expects to take three years to walk through more than 20 countries on
four continents, with occasional breaks for recuperation.

Letofsky reports that she had worried about culture shock in Asia, but two
Americans living in Singapore eased her entry by putting her up for a week.

"I went straight for the fridge," she said. "What a comfort to find those old
staples like Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice, Hellmann's mayonnaise, Skippy
Peanut Butter! And, wow, Grape Nuts! Where do I start?"

Members of one of her sponsoring organizations -- the Lions -- have chipped
in telephone cards, pepper spray, toothpaste and local currency for snacks
and emergencies in Singapore and Malaysia. "It's like having mothers and
fathers and husbands everywhere!" she writes in her journal.

In media interviews, Letofsky preaches the importance of early detection to
fight breast cancer.

"The rate of breast cancer throughout Asia is starting to catch up to the
Western world, so now is the time to start educating women, families and the
medical community," she said.

In a Star Tribune interview after she reached the California coast in 1999,
Letofsky explained that she was a sixth-grader in 1974 when she read about
David Kunst of Waseca, Minn., and his four-year, 15,000-mile walk around the
world. The urge to make her own walk around the world never left her, she
said.

She dedicated her walk to raising awareness of breast cancer after a friend
died from the disease.

Her route through Asia remains uncertain, but Letofsky said she probably will
avoid some areas that could be dangerous, including Afghanistan and Iran. She
expects to reach Europe sometime next year, then fly to the United States and
hike from New England through the Midwest -- with a stop in the Twin Cities,
where her siblings live -- and home to Colorado.

Her regular journal entries and other information about the world walk are on
her Web site: http://www.globalwalk.org.

-- Chuck Haga is at crhaga@startribune.com .