Breast cancer has met its match this winter! The Tubbs Romp to Stomp out Breast Cancer Snowshoe Series® has opened up registration for the 2010 season and lots of people have already logged on to join in on the fun times and fantastic cause.

Register now for a Romp near you and save up to $15 with the Early Bird Registration Discount! The Romp is a fun, inexpensive way to get active this winter AND support a fantastic cause. Find your event and register today!

USA (benefiting local affiliates of Susan G. Komen for the Cure®)

New Jersey: Sat, Jan 23, 2010

Vermont: Sat, Jan 30,2010

Utah: Sat, Feb 6, 2010

NEW!! Washington: Sat, Feb 20, 2010

Oregon: Sat, Feb 27, 2010

Colorado: Sat, March 6, 2010

CANADA (benefiting the Canadian Breast Cancer Research Foundation)

Ontario: Sat, Feb 20, 2010

The Tubbs Romp to Stomp out Breast Cancer Snowshoe Series is back for the eighth year to fight breast cancer one snowshoe step at a time! Save the date for the event near you.

 New Jersey

Sat, January 23, 2010

Mountain Creek Resort

 Vermont

Sat, January 30, 2010

Stratton Mountain Resort

 Utah

Sat, February 6, 2010

Mountain Dell Golf Course, SLC

 NEW! Washington

Sat, February 20, 2010

The Summit at Snoqualmie Nordic Center

 Oregon

Sat, February 27, 2010

Mt Hood

 Colorado

Sat, March 6, 2010

Frisco Nordic Center

Mother’s Day

May 7, 2009

This week, I’ve been making plans to celebrate Mother’s Day with my family. It hit me that during the course of the 2009 Romp Series, I met hundreds of people who aren’t able to celebrate Mother’s Day the way I can–giving my mom a hug, telling her in person just how much I love her. So many sons and daughters participate in the Romp to Stomp because they’ve lost their mothers and grandmothers to breast cancer, they’ll never celebrate Mother’s Day quite the same, and they want to join the fight by supporting Susan G. Komen through the Romp. But as I traveled to each Romp to Stomp, it also seemed that for every person Romping “in memory” of a mother, there was one Romping “in celebration”. It brought me an incredible sense of hope to know that breast cancer is being conquered. More women are surviving than ever before. And more families can celebrate Mother’s day with new appreciation. Of course the battle is not yet won. But this Mother’s Day, let’s celebrate the women in our lives that make us strive to love better, live more fully, and embrace the blessing it is to be alive.

Happy Mother’s Day to all who have lost the battle, to all who are fighting it, and especially to my own mom–thanks for traveling so far to support me at the Romp and Stomp this year!

Wendy Miller, Romp to Stomp Event Manager

PS: Check out one Dad’s inspiring mother’s day campaign

Romp to Stomp Results

April 2, 2009

2009 Romp to Stomp Series

3,881 Participants

 $190,234* Donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure®

*includes $8,670.00 from Tubbs 08/09 Women’s Product Sales Donation

 

Romp to Stomp Series History

15,982 Participants

 $928,245* Donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure®

*includes Tubbs Women’s Product Sales Donation

 

The five Romp to Stomp events in 2009 were a tremendous success offering a positive first-time snowshoeing experience to more than 2,200 people. Although economic conditions contributed to lower fundraising totals at each event, Tubbs kept event operations expenses low, ensuring that more registration fees and event income went to Susan G. Komen than ever before. From an operational standpoint, we also introduced a handful of successful programs such as Priority Check-In’s and the Colorado Romp carpool initiative, to increase the quality of experience for participants and develop a firm foundation for continued growth in 2010 and beyond.

Results by State

New Jersey

218 Participants

$6,911 raised for North Jersey Affiliate

Vermont

548 Participants

$40,971 raised for Vermont/New Hampshire Affiliate

Utah

469 Participants

$23,705 raised for Salt Lake City Affiliate

Oregon

555 Participants

$10,407 raised for Oregon/SW Washington Affiliate

Colorado

2,091 Participants

$99,570 raised for Denver Metropolitan Affiliate

 

Beth Winter was celebrating many things when she strapped on snowshoes for her fourth Romp to Stomp event at Mt. Hood, Oregon. Of Course, celebration was in order for her daughter who turned 30 that same day and for winning a Tubbs Snowshoe package as the top individual fundraiser for the event, but Beth was also celebrating something much more profound—the mere feat of being alive.

 

After accepting her prize at the awards ceremony, she took the microphone and could hardly hold back tears of appreciate for Tubbs, friends and family and for organizations like Susan G. Komen who supported her in her fight to become a breast cancer survivor—not a statistic.

photo: Ron Jackenthal

photo: Ron Jackenthal

“Go Team Grandma Helene!” “Go Team Grandma Helene!” chanted my niece and nephew with every step my out-of-breath mom took as she raced along the 3K Tubbs Romp to Stomp out Breast Cancer Snowshoe. That crisp, sunny morning, my mother, Helene, a breast cancer survivor who is currently battling lung cancer, strapped on snowshoes for the first time in her life.

“These are pretty cool,” she said, tapping them together fascinated with their sleek, lightweight design. “They’re not what I expected.” She envisioned wooden slabs with leather mesh. Give her a break; she lives in the Sunshine State and doesn’t see much snow.

My brother, Ron, and his family reside in Utah, so we thought snowshoeing together at the Salt Lake City Tubbs Romp on the Mountain Dell Golf Course would be terrific way to support our mom.  I flew in from New York, while our mom and other brother, Michael, left warm West Palm Beach, Florida, to Romp to Stomp together.

As we clunked to the energized starting area, music cranked and 469 spirited snowshoers shook their hips and pumped their fists. “Three … two … one… go!” We were off. Holding hands in a family chain, we thumped down the first steep hill onto the crunchy, undulating snow-covered greens. The warm sun felt great as we marched into the pod of snowshoers zigzagging along the sprawling, snow-carpeted field.

“I don’t think I can do this,” said my mom, who was out of breath and holding my arm. We were just 20 minutes in. Having undergone chemotherapy just two weeks earlier, she wasn’t at 100 percent and the thin air at 6,000 feet altitude wasn’t helping. While finishing the 3K was our goal, starting and staying together was most important.

After a brief rest and a “You can do it Grandma!” from my 9-year-old nephew and 7-year-old niece, mom rallied. We pressed on slowly and methodically, sipping the fresh mountain air. As an endurance athlete who has competed in six-day running races across the Kalahari Desert in South Africa and in Costa Rica, the Hawaii Ironman, and adventure races in Borneo and Ecuador, I know what it is to suffer. This was the first time I had ever seen my mom dig so deep, and I felt an unfamiliar athletic bond with her that is typically reserved for my fellow competitors.

At the halfway point, we met Barbara, also a breast cancer survivor, who was resting her weary feet daunted by poor circulation. She joined our posse. Further along the course, the husband of a cancer survivor gave my mom his water, peanut butter crackers, and told her “You are such an inspiration for being out here, go do your best.”

As we neared the end of the tree-lined rolling route, the finish appeared atop the steep hill we descended nearly two hours earlier. My mom was hurting. “It may be time to call the rescue snowmobile,” she said, starring up the hill while stopping to catch her breath. With my brother holding one arm and me clutching the other, we took it step-by-step with a few rest stops in between.

“Go Team Grandma Helene!” we chanted in unison. Onward we went. We inched up the hill and upon crossing under the pink finish banner, my mom collapsed into my arms as we hugged. My family piled in and from beneath came a muffled “We did it!”

–From Active.com article by adventure racer & elite athlete Stefanie Jackenthal; ClICK HERE for complete article

photo: Chris Wyman

photo: Chris Wyman

Although the day started out cold and gray, as the sky began to clear and turn a deep blue, the temperatures continued to fall as a stiff northwest wind battered the snowshoe hikers at the top of Vernon Peak at Mountain Creek. The event was part of the “Romp to Stomp Out Breast Cancer” Snowshoe Series.

Two very special hikers Lisa Morris of the Glenwood section of Vernon, NJ came to the New Jersey Romp to Stomp with her service dog Mojo. Although getting around with snowshoes is not really a difficult task for many people, it can be quite challenging for someone who has difficulty just getting around to begin with. Morris is making the best of her struggle with multiple sclerosis (MS) and Mojo is her tireless assistant and helps her to maintain her balance as she walks. Morris loves to get out and do things, but something like walking though the woods on snowshoes presents a potentially dangerous situation, even with Mojo’s help. The Romp to Stomp event gave her the opportunity to get out in the woods with a group of people who could be of assistance if needed. This was her first time at the event but she has been on snowshoes before.

 “With all of the people that are so involved in the outdoors, there’s a lot of encouragement for somebody like me who wants to get back out. I get cabin fever, I want to go back out,” She says.

–Excerpt taken from AIM Sussex County News Correspondent, Chris Wyman. CLICK HERE for complete article

 

What happens when you match three friends with a love of snowshoeing, a passion for the cause, and unlimited airplane flights from their employer, Delta airlines? You get a trio of Romp to Stomp groupies! Mary Wood, Vivian Peplinski,& Joni Gagnon will go down in Romp history for attending every single Tubbs Romp to Stomp out Breast Cancer event in the 2009 series. Teaming up as the “Rack Pack” this trio braved the crazy New Jersey winds and biting New England cold, delighted in clear Utah skies, conquered “the hill” in Oregon, and reveled in the tasty pancakes in Colorado.

photo: Kay Beaton

photo: Kay Beaton

In the history of the Romp to Stomp, no participant has contributed more to Susan G. Komen through her fundraising efforts than Jill Overdorf. Each year, Jill travels from her hometown in Southern California to participate in the Colorado Romp to Stomp, and each year she blows everyone away with her prolific fundraising! 2009 was no exception. As the top individual fundraiser, she raised $3,615 bringing her 6-Romp total to nearly $25,000!

 

 

 

 
KRISTEN & FAMILY photo: Kay Beaton
photo: Kay Beaton

One of the most inspirational stories of the 2009 Romp to Stomp Series belongs to Kristen Harris, who a few months before the Romp was diagnosed with breast cancer and just ten days before underwent surgery for a lumpectomy. Supported by a slew of friends and family and first-time Rompers who dubbed themselves “Kristen’s Dudettes,” Kristen completed the entire 5k snowshoe walk with a smile and incredible sense of accomplishment knowing she was doing something she loved—snowshoeing—and supporting other women who share her journey.   

 

 After being diagnosed, she did what is very common for those affected by breast cancer, she logged onto www.komen.org. There she discovered the Romp to Stomp, an event that appealed to her not only because it supported her new found cause, but also because she and her husband had been snowshoeing for ten years on Tubbs Snowshoes. 

If you talk with Kristen, her enthusiasm and dedication is contagious. “You kind of end up in this club you really don’t want to be in” she says describing the kinship and support she’s experienced since her diagnosis. That encouragement has empowered her to help other women, and she is currently considering more experimental treatment methods that might help other women down the road. “You almost feel like you want to take a risk.”   

 

Kristen’s journey with breast cancer is still in process as she makes important decisions about the best course of treatment, but thanks to the fantastic fundraising efforts of Kristen’s Dudettes at the Romp to Stomp,  her journey is no longer defined solely by a disease but by an energetic fight to end breast cancer one snowshoe step at a time.

photo: Kay Beaton

photo: Kay Beaton