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A big walk for good
Leah Payne completes 3-Day Walk for Cancer event

Leah Payne takes a popsicle break during the recent 3-Day Walk in Phoenix.

Leah Payne takes a popsicle break during the recent 3-Day Walk in Phoenix.

While Williams resident Leah Payne is more accustomed to running than to walking, she found that she wasn't half bad at it. Payne, animal control officer for the city of Williams, recently took part in the Arizona 3-Day Walk for breast cancer and strolled close to 60 miles during the event in order to raise money for breast cancer. Proceeds from the walk went to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. A smaller portion of the proceeds, roughly 15 percent, goes toward breast cancer research.

"The event itself was successful," Payne said. "Arizona raised $5.7 million with 2,100 participants altogether. I would just like to thank the community of Williams for their support. It was a very emotional journey (and) I want to do it again next year. I'm going to be knocking on doors again next year."

Payne said she is considering other ways to raise funds when she enters the competition again as well. Twenty-one participants joined Payne's team for the recent event. Each walker in the walk had to raise $2,200 in order to participate. Members in Payne's group, she said, consisted largely of family members of her old college roommate.

"Her mother-in-law is a breast cancer survivor, which is something I did not know going into the race. That was very inspirational. We let her cross the line first," Payne said, adding that her group earned close to $47,000 alone.

"My part was thanks to the community of Williams for being so supportive. I wouldn't have been able to participate without their help," Payne said.

Payne came in number 143 out of 2,100 walkers for the event.

"Out of our 21 team members, one finished third, another one finished fifth, one finished 11th and then the majority of us finished between 140 and 160," she said. "It was incredibly hot. Day two was the longest day. The first day we walked 17 (miles), 21 (they say) the second day, but everyone's pedometers read between 23 and 25. The last day we walked 18. They kind of break it up. It doesn't exactly add up to 60 miles, but they take into account camp, because the camp is all spread out. It was very inspirational. I cried at the beginning and I cried at the end. You meet so many neat people and it's so inspirational. I highly recommend the event to anybody."

Accommodations were provided by event organizers, which included a camp that followed the walkers throughout their journey. Hot showers, dinners, two-person tents and entertainment were offered each night.

"Camp life was phenomenal," Payne said. "They had a fashion show with all the lost and found items, through the event, on the last night, which was really entertaining. They had karaoke participants that was called a rock concert and whoever did the best karaoke won the rock concert."

A number of teams, Payne said, came up with a number of funny names to commemorate their group.

"The names of the teams were hysterical. Our favorite name for a team was 'Save Second Base,' that was the name of the team," Payne said. "Their T-shirts had baseballs, one on each side. It was great. The cutest thing that I saw on the walk; it was in a neighborhood in Tempe, there was a little boy, probably about three-years-old, holding a sign that said, 'Thank you, Arizona 3-Day Walkers, because I was breast fed.' I thought that was the cutest thing I ever saw. It was (all) just so neat."


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