Thursday, May 22, 2003

The Reveille
Between the Lakes 
Seneca Falls, NY

Polly raises awareness about breast cancer

(Excerpts)

Polly Letofsky wended her way up Route 96A from Lodi to Sampson State Park in Romulus Tuesday to promote awareness for breast cancer, with a side trip to Waterloo today.  She was a special speaker at the Chamber of Commerce's Business After Hours Tuesday night at the National Bank of Geneva in Ovid, and a special guest at the Ovid-Willard Lions picnic Wednesday.

Letofsky is on the final leg of a five-year, 15,000-mile walk around the world.  The one-woman walk takes in 20 countries over four continents in a fundraising and awareness effort for breast cancer.  As she has walked, local Lions Clubs have supported her, including the Ovid-Willard and Waterloo Lions.

Letofsky named her solitary project Global Walk for Breast Cancer.  She has already logged four years of walking and her odometer read 10,825-of a projected 15,000 miles--when she reached Ovid.

This leg of her trip is through the district.  It includes 93 miles, with the aid of eight Lions chapters from Watkins Glen-to-Elmira-to-Ithace-to-Lodi-to-Waterloo -to-Newark-to Macedon.  In the district she will be on radio and TV shows and at welcoming ceremonies and club meetings.  Each time, she stops to tell her story and encourage donations towards breast cancer research.  At some venues, Letofsky held t-shirt raffles.

She started her trip in August 1999 from her home in Vail, CO, vowing to tackle the tough terrain of Arizona and California first.  She crossed the mountains into the Navajo Indian Reservation of Arizona's high desert plain, down Route 66 through the Mojave Desert to the California coast while, as she says, she was still in the "romantic stages" of her walk.

After reaching the Pacific Ocean, she advanced to New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Turkey, the Greek islands, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, England, Scotland and Ireland, before heading back to the good old U.S.A.  At the State Departments urging, she skipped the Middle East countries, and she was denied access to Burma and China.

The final leg included trips through new York City, Philadelphia and Harrisburg, PA before wending her way to our neck of the woods in route to Niagara Falls.  

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