Having gone through cancer herself, and losing 13 loved ones to cancer, Tina McDonough, the founder of Valley Girls and Guys!, is making a larger impact on people struggling with cancer than she ever thought she would.
Valley Girls and Guys! used to be a three day walking team that would walk to raise money to support Susan G. Komen, 3-Day Walk for a Cure nonprofit that supports breast cancer patients.
Now, since 2014, they have expanded their efforts by raising money for all cancers not just breast cancer, the Valley Girls and Guys! website said. The group was approved for nonprofit status in 2014.
Within the last 10 years, Tina said Valley Girls and Guys! has raised about $3 million for Susan G. Komen and hopes to do the same locally for all cancers.
The nonprofit is still doing a walk to raise money for cancer, but is also sending out blankets to “comfort and help” people all over the world and the United States.
Her inspiration for starting this nonprofit comes from when she lost a close friend of hers to cancer in 2007 at the age of 38. Since then, she has walked to help those who have cancer.
According to Tina, there are two different levels of walks people can sign up to do.
She said there is an 18-mile walk and a 1.8 mile walk.
“If you do the 18 mile walk you need to raise $1,800 and you have a year to do that. If you’re doing the 1.8 mile walk, you have to raise just $180. The reason for the 18 and the 1.8 (miles) is because I did start out with breast cancer and 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime and so that number was very important for me because I never want to forget where I started from,” she said.
It costs about $53 to register to walk and it will take place on July 20, 2019, Tina said.
Valley Girls and Guys! has been working to get more support for their walk.
Tina has already talked to the Maple Valley City Council to get their support. She said they are fully sanctioning the walk and supporting it and making it apart of their efforts.
The 18 mile course in Maple Valley will start and end at the soon-to-be Summit Park.
“We are going to start at the brand new park in Maple Valley that’s going to start being built. That will be our start and our finish line. Lunch will be at Lake Wilderness Park. We’ll walk down kind of under Highway 18 over by Foley’s, that will kind of be our turnaround mark. (Then) come back through Lake Wilderness Park as like a pit stop and we will proceed over to the West Side of 169 and go through the Farmers Market. And then back through the Four Corners, Safeway area, back into the park (Summit) for our ending,” Tina said.
After people finish the walk, she said there will be beer and wine gardens, food trucks, vendor booths, live music and “a celebration of life,” that will take place at Summit Park.
The idea to send out blankets to cancer patients is a newer idea for Valley Girls and Guys!, but according to Tina it’s been going really well.
To get a blanket, Tina said all people have to do is go to the Valley Girls and Guys! website and request one, and then Tina takes it from there.
“People can go on the website and fill out a small little application, like first, last name and who we mail it to, and then as soon as I get that request I go into Walmart and — it sounds silly — I upload our team picture of 180 walkers and we are holding a sign that says, ‘Valley Girls and Guys! walks for you.’ Then I hand-type in the quote (‘Nothing is impossible, the word itself says I’m possible,’ by Audrey Hepburn) and their name. Then they get shipped to me,” Tina explained. “They’re 50×60, is the size of them and they’re fleece. They’re super warm and cozy. As soon as they come in, I turn around and ship them wherever they need to go. There’s a little letter that goes with it telling them who we are and who ordered this special gift for them, then they just randomly get it in the mail.”
She said since February 2013, they have sent over 1,200 blankets all over the world.
The organization has sent blankets to people varying in ages, from 2 years old to 92 years old, Tina said.
Tina explained that she sends out blankets to spread comfort to those who need it while they are going through chemo or radiation.
“People could look at these blankets and (see) all of these smiling faces and have the knowledge of all these people walking and fundraising for them and caring about them,” she said.
A recipient of a blanket from Valley Girls and Guys! was Hunter Coffman, a 4-year-old Maple Valley resident that died of cancer in March 2018.
Tina said the community reached out to her about Hunter and as soon as she heard about him, she sent him a blanket.
She has also been talking with his mom, Laura Coffman. Tina said she promised his mom that she would find a way to fund research in honor of Hunter. So that’s what Tina did, she found a way.
“Hunter was still alive in January when we went to Seattle Children’s and gave them a check for $50,000 that got matched. So we funded a brand new clinical trial for kids cancer. The first 10 kids will go through that clinical trial this fall because of our monies and in honor of Hunter,” Tina said.
Tina said she has saved every email, every card and every thank you during her time at Valley Girls and Guys!. She said she has a book that is 3 inches thick filled with memories.
“It’s humbling. If somebody would have told me this is what I would be doing or this would be my life work I would have said, ‘You’re crazy.’ But at the same time it’s been so rewarding, but I’ve lost,” Tina said. “I guess when I started I thought I could save everybody and I didn’t, and I haven’t. I’ve lost 13 people personally that I’ve known over the last 10 years. I know we can’t help everyone, but we can help a lot of someones out there and I just think we owe it to our families and our friends to keep trying and that’s why I’ve shifted efforts and I want to start in my own backyard.”
