Shirl's Girls Head to D.C. to Walk For the Cure

Friday morning, long before the sun could make its daily debut over the horizon, a group of women gathered in Manassas Park to begin a long journey, all done in the name of love.

 The journey: The Susan G. Komen 3-day For The Cure walk in Washington D.C.

The women:

The first walkers took their first steps at dawn on Friday, the first day of a 60-mile trek through the District.

 It seems far, but Manassas Park resident and original Shirl Girl Mary Ellen Shaw said it really isn’t.

“Sixty-miles is nothing compared to what the (cancer survivors) go through,” Shaw said Thursday at the Shirl’s Girls send-off dinner at in Manassas Park.

Fighting breast cancer and other types of cancer is so much harder than walking, she said.

 The group was founded by Manassas Park resident Bobbi Beers who named the team for her mother Shirley, a three-time cancer survivor.

Beers will participate in the closing ceremonies of the walk on Sunday.

 Shaw no longer walks the 60-miles, but said she—or rather, her alter ego—is one of the team’s biggest cheerleaders.

Shaw said  a super hero called, "Super Boob" takes over to encourage the team members.

 Shaw dresses up in a pink wig, rose-colored glasses, pink boxing gloves, a bra worn on the outside of her clothes and a cape with the name "Super Boob,” adorning the back.

 Shirl’s Girls held several this year to raise money to participate in the walk, including the Bikers for Boobs event and the at Signal Hill Park.

The team met its goal and raised more than $32,000 for the walk, Shirl's Girl Christine Stone said Thursday.

 The team also gained a few new members along the way.

Kelly Tynes, a Manassas resident and personal trainer, joined the team with her good friend and fellow trainer Ciara Gibson just a few weeks ago.

 Tynes said she is walking because cancer has affected so many of the people she loves.

 Her father died of brain cancer when she was just 9-years-old, she said. Her mother and grandmother died of lung and breast cancer, and her college boyfriend died of stomach cancer.

It was her boyfriend’s death that made her leave her full Arts scholarship behind and change her major to therapy, Tynes said.

 Preparing for the walk wasn’t especially difficult, Gibson said.

“I walk almost every day regardless, so it was a lot of my normal schedule ,” she said. “It might be hard mentally, because of the reason I’m walking, but physically, I don’t think so. It definitely something I’ll never forget.”

 Shirl Girl Mary Church will walk the 60-miles with the woman who inspired her to participate in the first place—her best friend Deanna Gwatney.

Church said she decided to do the walk after Gwatney was diagnosed with breast cancer.

Gwatney underwent 37, 28-minute radiation treatments, but never missed one day of teaching third grade in her Oklahoma classroom.

 Her body wouldn’t allow her to walk with Church last year, but this year, she was determined to fly out to join her friend.  The two also plan to do the Susan G. Komen For The Cure walk in Dallas.

Most of the 14-member team will stay in hotel rooms Friday and Saturday night, but Tynes and Gibson, along with thousands of other walkers, will camp each night in pink tents provided by event organizers.