Ojib-what?

"Would you like to say your thoughts and prayers over the tobacco?"

Not a phrase you hear every day. But today at the Fond-du-Lac Indian reservation in Cloquet, Minnesota, that's exactly what the spiritual woman with the long gray hair and suede moccasins said as she walked in front of me and the rest of the KOTG team, brandishing a small plastic bag of pungent, shredded tobacco leaves. Most of us took pinches and were instructed to hold them in our left hands, which are closer to our hearts. After awhile the woman collected them all in a bowl and stuffed the tobacco in her pipe, which she smoked while singing prayers in the native language and turning to face the North, South, East and West separately.

Today we took Big Pink to the reservation (or "rez" as the natives call it) to take part in a ceremony honoring the tribe's recent partnership with Susan G. Komen for the Cure and their newly active mission of cancer education and prevention, and to exhibit at their tribal community center. We learned that the mortality rate for the Ojibwe tribe is so low, members are considered elders at 52. Cancer is the leading cause of death, followed by diabetes.

Yikes, right? The craziest thing is, after this big ceremony highlighting all the reasons why women NEEDED to come through our trailer, needed to educate themselves about breast cancer- we had a very dismal turnout. And the weather was gray and often rainy; most of the day we scurried around covering or uncovering computers with tarps, rather than interacting with locals. Big Pink was almost empty for hours on end.

But it wasn't all bad. Everyone who did stop in and all the people who worked to arrange our stop on the rez were extremely warm and expressed profuse gratitude that we visited. They even presented us with gifts, including a long sleeved t-shirt that says "NO METH ON MY REZ!" on the back. Ha?

Amy on the Go

Hi! So, wow. I have a blog. Neat. I'm actually sort of surprised it's taken me this long to jump on the blog wagon. Back in my AmeriCorps days I had a livejournal but that was so 2002.

While I've been thinking about starting this up for awhile, the reason I'm choosing now is that I've hit the road again, this time working on an educational tour sponsored by Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Basically, we take our big pink trailer all around the country and educate people about breast cancer, breast health and self exams. We are in a different town nearly every day, staying in hotels and exhibiting "Big Pink" (our trailer's nickname) at community health fairs, festivals, charity events and even Wal-Mart parking lots.

It's interesting how I got hooked into this tour, which is called "Komen on the Go," or KOTG for short.

I work for an event production company that handles mostly large-scale fundraising events for nonprofits. But Event 360 has their hands in some other pies too, like consulting, smaller fundraising events and this mobile educational tour. Our biggest event is the Breast Cancer 3 Day, which benefits Komen for the Cure, and I've spent the last 1.5 years as a recruitment coordinator for the 3 Day.

Just over a week ago I was back in Chicago in my home office when I received a phone call from Event 360's director of recruitment. She let me know that someone had unexpectedly left the KOTG tour and they were wondering if I'd be willing to fill in for a week or two. Face-to-face interaction with the public, breast cancer education and travel? I jumped at the chance! They put me on a plane and in less than 24 hours I met up with Big Pink and the rest of the tour staff in Albany, NY.

Yesterday my company asked me to stay with the tour for the duration of this first leg (there will be a second one in the fall). I accepted, which means i'll be on the road til June 25th. Wow!

Already we've been to some great places- a quaint little town in Vermont called Rutland; Exeter, New Hampshire; Manchester, Connecticut; York, Maine; Elmira, New York....

Right now I'm in a hotel room in Erie, Pennsylvania- we are exhibiting at the local Wal-Mart tomorrow before heading to Toledo tomorrow night. After that we'll be in Chicago for a couple days (just a stopover, no exhibit there) before heading up to an Indian reservation in Cloquet, Minnesota.

My hope is to update every few days with anecdotes, pictures, and whatever else strikes my fancy. For now here's a couple pictures of Big Pink- a pretty incredible feat of engineering featuring 5 large flatscreen monitors, 4 mobile computer kiosks with looping video, and about 16 laptop computer stations where guests can access the Komen website and its infinite resources on breast cancer and breast health.

Until next time...have you done your self-exam this month?