Women from Radey Thomas Yon & Clark Train for 60-Mile Walk and Raise Thousands for Breast Cancer Research
Tallahassee’s Radey Thomas Yon & Clark women are in training.
All six of the downtown law firm’s women lawyers, as well as the firm administrator, a paralegal, and a former firm lawyer, will be walking next month in the Atlanta Breast Cancer 3-Day, a 60-mile walk over the course of three days. By walking through the city and suburbs of Atlanta on October 24-26, the nine-member “Radey Law” team will raise thousands of dollars for breast cancer research, education, screening, and treatment. The women have already collected $22,844, and contributions are still coming in.
Every Saturday and some Sundays, the team members meet at various locations in the Tallahassee area for long training walks. They’ve hiked many of the local trails, including those at Tom Brown Park, the Miccosukee Greenway, the St. Marks Trail, and Lake Overstreet. They’ve also traversed neighborhoods all over town.
“The Saturday walks are the best,” said Team Captain Donna Blanton. “We often walk for 12 or 13 miles together, and we talk about everything imaginable. We’ve developed a great camaraderie in a non-work environment that has provided tremendous benefits in the office as well.”
The “Radey Law” team consists of all of the firm’s women lawyers — Karen Asher-Cohen, Donna Blanton, Susan Clark, Toni Egan, Elizabeth McArthur, and Lisa Scoles – as well as Paralegal Laureen McElroy and Firm Administrator Peggy Smith. Additionally, Natalie Smith, a former lawyer with the firm and now director of regulatory relations for Florida Power & Light Company, is a member of the team. Net proceeds from the walk benefit Susan G. Komen for the Cure and National Philanthropic Trust.
The team members range in age from 31 to 58. One lawyer, Toni Egan, is six months pregnant. Another lawyer, Susan Clark, has welcomed her first two grandchildren this summer. Others bring their children along for some training walks. Lisa Scoles’ daughter Blaire, 12, and Peggy Smith’s son, Conner, 13, have joined the team occasionally.
The men at the firm also are helping with the effort. David Yon, an avid runner, has mapped out courses for the team’s training walks. Harry Thomas invited the team to his hunting farm in South Georgia for a 12-mile walk on the canopied roads of a nearby plantation and then cooked lunch for the group. Calling himself the “water boy,” he drove along the course all morning, handing out bottled water to the team members.
Each team member is individually required to raise a minimum of $2,200 in order to participate in the event. Most of the team members have far exceeded that requirement.
“This has just been a great project from so many standpoints,” Blanton said. “We’ve raised a lot of money for an important cause, we’ve all become more fit, and we’ve gotten to know each other in a way we never would have just by working together.”
The Radey Law team web page is at http://08.the3day.org/goto/Radey.Law.Team. To learn more about Breast Cancer 3-Day events, which will take place between August and November of this year in fourteen cities, please visit http://08.the3day.org.