In 2003, Terri Jenks served her first year as a volunteer with the Piedmont Augusta Foundation’s Miracle Mile Walk counting donations and securing deposits. Twenty years later, Terri continues to be involved and her role has grown significantly. Now, Terri recruits and organizes hundreds of volunteers, which includes much of her family, who come together to make the event successful each year. What keeps Terri coming back to serve year after year? “Just seeing the people out there keeps me involved because almost everybody is walking for somebody - either a survivor or somebody who lost their battle,” shares Terri. “I do this because every one of us is going to be touched in some way by breast cancer. It might not be you, but it may be your mother, your sister, your friend, or your spouse. It’s going to touch everybody eventually because breast cancer is so rampant and what I really love is that we can do something to slow it down.”
Funds from the Miracle Mile Walk go directly to help people here in the CSRA. “The purpose of the Walk is to fund lifesaving mammograms for people who don't have a way to pay for it, don't have insurance, or don't have enough insurance,” says Terri. “These are funded through Piedmont Augusta's Randy W. Cooper, M.D., Center for Breast Health Services and the Mobile Mammography Unit, which goes out to different businesses and rural communities where they can provide a mammogram right there on the mobile.”
“There might be somebody who works at a plant on an assembly line who doesn't have time to take off to go to the hospital and have a mammogram or maybe they're afraid to go somewhere,” she adds. “So the mobile unit addresses those barriers and makes it easy and available to them.” Since its inception, the mobile unit has performed 80,000 screening mammograms and has traveled over 300,000 miles, with over 360 diagnoses of cancers. In addition to educating the community about early detection and the importance of getting an annual mammogram, resources are available to help survivors during and after treatment.
This year’s walk will be held on Saturday, October 21st. The pre-walk program begins at 8:00am at the Augusta Common, located at 836 Reynolds Street. The three-mile fun walk will kick off at 9:00am and will conclude with a post-walk celebration and raffle drawings at the August Common.
Terri welcomes and still needs volunteers - individuals and groups such as churches, office staffs, and civic organizations - to help the day of the event, especially with set up. She also encourages individuals and groups to participate in the fun walk and continue to raise breast cancer awareness.
To volunteer, contact Terri at MMWvolunteer1@gmail.com. For information on participating in the walk or finding other ways you can support the Piedmont Augusta Foundation and the Miracle Mile Walk, visit www.themiraclemilewalk.org. For breast health-specific information, please visit the Center for Breast Health’s website universityhealth.org/cancer/breast-health-center or call 706-774-4141.
I do this because every one of us are going to be touched in some way by breast cancer.