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Week of 8 October 1999 Vol. III, No. 9 Feature Article Graham jumps for the cause, lands in the record book By Eric McHenry When rain and snow aren't falling from the sky over Pepperell, Mass., Wendy Graham is. Graham has been an obsessive skydiver for 20 years, and Pepperell is her longtime "drop zone." If the weather cooperates, she can squeeze a dozen jumps into a single weekend. The thrill, she says, never diminishes. But of the 2,200 jumps she's made -- as an Army airborne paratrooper, as a top-level competitor, and as an enthusiast -- none has been more thrilling than Jump for the Cause. Wendy Graham, indicated by the arrow, helps complete the 118-woman free-fall formation that captured a world record and raised nearly half a million dollars for breast cancer research. Photo by Norman Kent On September 5 in Perris Valley, Calif., Graham and a group of seasoned skydivers broke the all-women free-fall formation world record, holding a 118-way interlocked figure in midair for 3.46 seconds. More important, their efforts raised nearly half a million dollars for breast cancer research. Graham, an employment specialist in the Office of Personnel, was part of a 79-woman team that set the record a decade ago in Montgomery, N.Y. That impressive fall soon fell, however, to a 100-way formation over France. "We've been chasing this record since '92," says Graham. "We've been to North Carolina, Illinois, Arizona -- all over the place trying to break it, and we've been unsuccessful. It's just the most incredible feeling to have done it, to know that we're in the same book as Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh." The event's organizers set aside five days, September 1 through 5, for attempts at the record. The group needed all of them. It wasn't until the second jump of the final day, after 14 tries, that the women managed a perfect 118-way formation. Of course, when assembling a midair mosaic of 118 women, all of whom are falling at a terminal velocity of 125 miles per hour, a few failed attempts are to be expected. Seven airplanes, flying in a V pattern, dropped the women at 16,500 feet. This allowed them about 90 seconds of free-fall time, during which they had to arrange themselves according to a meticulous plan, establish firm arm and leg grips, and hold the formation for at least three seconds before letting go, separating, checking altimeters, and deploying parachutes. "You have a lot of people in the air at one time," says Graham. "You have to be able to judge the distance and the speed that you're flying and to fall in a fashion that keeps you stable and in control. It's very difficult. And the ground gets very big very fast." A survivor and her family walk for the cause Pauline Hamel makes no bones about it: Breast Cancer Awareness Month is one of the reasons she's alive. "It was literature from the American Cancer Society that got me to go for my mammogram at the end of October that year," says Hamel, SAR clinical associate professor of physical therapy, who in 1996 was diagnosed with breast cancer. "I was bombarded with it, and I kept thinking, I've got to go do this. Finally, it became this feeling that I was being given a message. Thank God I went in and had it done." The month now holds special significance for Hamel, who fully recovered after a painful year of surgery, radiation treatment, and chemotherapy. On October 3, she joined dozens of other BU community members for Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. More that 32,000 people participated in the 5.7-mile awareness walk along the Charles River Esplanade. The event raised approximately $2.9 million for breast cancer research, education, and patient support programs in Massachusetts. Hamel walked with her son, Steve (SMG'03), and daughter, Nicole (SAR'01), who used her position as a South Campus resident assistant to help organize a large team of undergraduate participants. "I've got about half my house going," Nicole said on October 1. "And I've gotten a lot of pledges and gestures of support. Even if people can't pledge money or walk, my real goal is just to make them aware." Awareness, she explained, is essential to the promotion of research, relevant legislation, and early diagnosis, as her mother's experience attests. "The walk is a time to reflect on how lucky my mom is," Nicole said. "You see so many people with T-shirts that say 'In Memory of . . .'" Because of the strength and perspective it has lent her, Pauline now refers to the cancer she conquered as "a gift." Activities that allow her to share that perspective, she adds, harmonize nicely with her work as an educator in the health sciences. "You wonder why it happens to you," she says of the cancer. "I think when you have opportunities like this one, to teach others how to take care of themselves and how to prevent a rough road ahead, you realize why you might have been the one." For more information about Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, contact the American Cancer Society by calling 1-800-952-7664, ext. 4700, or e-mailing strides_boston@cancer.org. Jump for the Cause was organized by California skydiver Kate Cooper at the suggestion of Mallory Tarcher-Hood, daughter of the well-known ventriloquist Shari Lewis, who died recently of complications resulting from breast cancer. Divers solicited donations totaling nearly $500,000, which will go to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation after all of the event's expenses have been paid. Cooper, with more than 5,600 jumps under her belt, has considerable connections in the skydiving community, and was able to put together something of a dream team for the record attempt. Like most elite communities, Graham says, the world of serious skydivers is "very, very small." "You know people from all over the world," she says. "Kate's an excellent skydiver and a good organizer, and that's one of the things that attracted me to this event. I knew she'd draw the big names, that she'd get good jumpers, and that she'd get the record, and I didn't want to miss it." Jump for the Cause, Graham says, began with a moving tribute to Shari Lewis, best known as the voice and sidekick of the cheeky puppet Lambchop. At the opening breakfast, Tarcher-Hood produced Lambchop and did an uncanny impromptu version of her mother's act. "Mallory said to Lambchop, 'These women are all here to set a world record and to raise money for breast cancer research,'" Graham recalls. "And Lambchop looked at Mallory and said, 'Isn't that how we lost Shari?' And of course all the women started to get teary-eyed. And Lambchop said, 'Well, you're just going to have to go out and set that record.' Lambchop told us what to do, and we did it." Graham, a master sergeant in the Rhode Island Army Reserves, began jumping in 1979 as a paratrooper. She went airborne, she says, because she'd always wanted to skydive but didn't want to pay for lessons. Only about 35 of her jumps, however, have been military exercises. Together with her husband, Tom McLaughlin, a senior academic counselor at COM, she gets in about 300 recreational and competitive leaps each year. Rather than resting on Graham's laurels, the pair traveled to Sebastian, Fla., in late September for the United States Parachuting Association national tournament, at which McLaughlin captured two bronze medals. Jump for the Cause will be shown October 11 on Real TV, which airs on WHDH. Check listings for time.