Fun walk strides forward in GreyHawk Landing

Two years ago, Margo Diener battled with breast cancer — as have countless others. Within her own circle of friends in East County, at least five have also been diagnosed in the last 10 years.

“We call it the club we don’t want to be in,” Diener said.

Diener has lived in GreyHawk Landing for the last eight years. While she’s been there, and while she’s been battling cancer, friend and fellow survivor Sandy Gatti got her involved with raising money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer awareness.

“The foundation really does step up — they paid the medical bills for a friend who had a double mastectomy with no insurance,” Diener said.

Gatti is planning to participate in a three-day walk in Bradenton for the foundation. With Gatti's help, Diener was inspired to create a miniature version for her own community — a 2-mile fun walk for breast cancer in GreyHawk.

“It’s a fun way to raise awareness,” she said.

It’s the first time someone in GreyHawk has tried to organize a public walk within the community. To host the walk, Diener had to get

approval from the GreyHawk Landing Community Development District Board of Supervisors, a process that took her a few months.

After she presented the idea to the board in June, the supervisors had lots of questions, to which she worked to bring back detailed answers, she said. The board also requested a member of the neighborhood's events committee be involved, so Lindsay Wilson volunteered to help Diener organize.

After deciding on a route that would not disturb residents’ lawns, designating a mid-point water break and agreeing to set up shading along the route, Diener gained approval for her walk at the Aug. 27 CDD meeting.

“We’ll have volunteers along, keeping tabs on everyone,” she said. “We mapped out a nice route through GreyHawk.”

Diener is advertising the walk to the public, but is hoping to get lots of support from within the community, too. She’s involved in several GreyHawk clubs, and plans to push her friends to encourage everyone to participate and raise awareness for the cause. The walk is being sponsored by Gatti's husband, Peter, and his business, rockitradioman.com, so the event has been named "Rock-it to the Cure."

"Everyone thinks its all about the money-raising part, but the bigger part to finding a cure is raising awareness," Sandy Gatti said.