Last year, many of you supported me in my very first Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. With your help, my team raised more than $34,000 for research and early detection. In our debut year, you made us one of the top 20 fundraising teams in D.C.

I hope I can count on your support again this year. For my 2008 Walk, I pledge to do the full 39.3 miles—a full marathon on Day 1 and a half-marathon on Day 2—if I double my fundraising goal of $1,800.

I am walking again with TeamMBA, a terrific group of colleagues and friends committed to eliminating the fear, dread, and hopelessness that can accompany a breast cancer diagnosis. Every three minutes, another person in the United States finds out they have breast cancer, to say nothing of our global community. Since I crossed the finish line in 2007, a dear friend has lost an aunt to this disease and a family friend started planning one final vacation for his wife, whose prognosis is grim.

We can—we must—do better.

So I’m asking again for your kind support as we prepare for this year’s event. There are several ways to donate:

• Online: http://tinyurl.com/2qqs3z (my personal fundraising site—safe, fast, and easy)
• By mail: I will happily send you a donation slip and envelope if this is your preference.
• Company matching: If your employer matches charitable donations, please let me know and I will provide the paperwork to help you maximize your contribution.

This year, please feel free to follow our progress by subscribing to our training blog: http://teammba.blogspot.com. Anyone is allowed to comment! One thing we learned last year is that your financial support helped us surpass our goal, but your emotional support carried us through every single mile.

Thank you in advance for caring and for giving—your contribution is greatly appreciated. Together, we will yield a result far greater than any one of us alone could achieve.

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This is the email that went out today to…pretty much everyone in my electronic address book. Fundraising season is now officially open! And if I hit that double-the-goal mark, I am totally screwed!

Also, the title of this post was my favorite team name last year, closely followed by “Save the Ta-tas.”