Recent University graduate Marie Doyle will run 26.2 miles this June to benefit the Oregon Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The assistant manager at local business The Juice, Doyle has joined the society’s Team In Training program to raise $5,000 for the cause.
Tonight The Juice, at 295 E. Fifth Ave., and its next-door companion Face It!, a boutique that carries high-profile makeup and skin products, have teamed-up to allow customers to shop for the same cause.
Customers at the first annual Shop for a Cause will be showered with makeovers, cocktails, a silent auction, and, of course, shopping, all for the sake of charity.
“We wanted to do something where we could give back,” The Juice manager Ashley Jude said. “We have a great opportunity with our customers. They’re so supportive of our businesses and just with a lot of different charities in the area.”
Doyle and Jude wanted to find a way to involve their customers and to give them something more than just a great pair of jeans to take home.
Ten percent of the night’s sales go directly to Doyle’s Team In Training program.
Local businesses Bello, Modern, Miss Meer’s, Café Lucky Noodle and others have donated items, such as dinner certificates and goody baskets for the silent auction. Customers can bid on these items and all of the profits go toward Doyle’s $5,000 pledge.
In June, Doyle will run in the San Diego Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon that starts in Balboa Park and ends at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in Point Loma. Doyle remembers promising herself during her senior year of high school to do something physically challenging.
“I was always the last kid in P.E. to finish the run,” Doyle said.
Doyle decided to run her first marathon that year for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society after hearing a moving speech from one of its honor patients about his painful battle with cancer. Honor patients are recent survivors of blood cancer who serve to inspire Team In Training participants and remind them why they are dedicating themselves to months of training. Doyle had an honor patient whose cancer was in remission, and his courage kept her focused on her goal, she said.
On June 2, 2002, after months of intensive training and fundraising, Doyle turned her promise into a reality.
“When I crossed the finish line the first time it was such an amazing, emotional feeling that not only I accomplished something as challenging as a marathon but at the same time that I had raised $3,600 to help cancer research and patient services and everything,” she said. “The way I look at it, cancer touches everybody’s lives.”
Team In Training is the largest sports endurance program in the world, benefiting society’s mission to advance cancer research, education and patient services. Since 1988, more than 295,000 people have participated in Team In Training, raising more than $660 million to help fight all types of blood cancers. Participants of Team In Training work with trainers who help them prepare to compete in half marathons, triathlons, or 100-mile bike rides.
After competing in her first marathon, Doyle knew she would one day run a second. The fact that her contribution made a difference in the lives of cancer patients and their families helped her through her difficult training.
She reveled in the transformation of her body and how she was doing something physically beneficial for herself while helping others.
“It’s such a wonderful experience in my life,” Doyle said. “It’s one of those things that I truly believe in my heart of hearts that if you set your mind to something you can do it.”
Jude encourages college students to attend Shop for a Cause because they can score some great stuff, such as a delicious dinner at Café Lucky Noodle at a decent price. Jude said she hopes to coordinate Shop for a Cause again next year and to include all the shops on the block.
“Everybody has an opportunity to support this cause,” Jude said. “This is a good opportunity for a percentage of what they’re buying anyway to go to a great cause.”
Shop for a Cause is open to the public. Customers should RSVP to The Juice, (541) 686-1195.