Offering to be at the finish line to meet a good friend and cancer survivor who has just completed the Avon 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk from Fitchburg, Mass., to Boston had a profound effect on 27-year-old Shannon Fisher of Orono.

“I went to get her, and pick her up,” Shannon Fisher said of her friend, “but I had no idea what I was getting into.

“There were 3,000 people, and all these people walked together and supported each other.

“People who got hurt along the way were being helped to the finish line, and it was just amazing.”

That walk, one of many across the country, Fisher reported, “raised $10 million” for breast cancer research.

Fisher was so impressed with the event that she decided she wanted to be involved and, when she saw a television commercial awhile ago about the Avon walks, “I said to myself, that’s right! I wanted to do that this year.

“So I called the 800 number, and got the information.”

When she learned what her daughter was doing, 53-year-old Kate Fisher of Marshfield, Mass., decided it was a great idea, too, and is joining in this effort to help in the fight against breast cancer.

Shannon Fisher is not participating in this fund-raiser, as do so many others, because she is a breast cancer survivor or knows someone who has the disease. Her friend who first sparked her interest in this event did not have breast cancer.

Fisher is doing the walk “for all the underserved women in our country who need to have access to health care,” she said.

Shannon Fisher and her mother will participate in the Avon 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk May 17-19 from Fitchburg to Boston.

The entry fee is $75 per person, and then each individual is expected to raise $1,900.

When we spoke this week, Shannon Fisher had reached the $1,000 mark in her fund raising, which she has done, up to this point, on her own just by asking friends and other community members to support her effort.

However, “the account closes on Friday, April 19,” Fisher reported, so she would really like to have that amount raised by that date.

Anyone who is willing to help Fisher meet her goal can send a check made out to Avon Breast Cancer 3-Day and mail it in care of Shannon Fisher, P.O. Box 1162, Bangor 04402-1162.

Obviously, the timing is a little tight here, but Fisher said she “can take donations until the day I go,” and turn the money in at that time.

Although she has already made a financial contribution herself, “ultimately, I am responsible for whatever is left,” she said of the $1,900 target amount.

In the meantime, Fisher and her mother have been working hard to prepare themselves for this great trek.

“We started out each doing three miles a day, then moved it up to five miles and are now doing 10,” she said.

“I’m traveling back and forth on weekends, to boost each other up, and we’re doing longer stretches on the weekends.”

She is eagerly looking forward to the event she describes as “not about power walking, but just about doing the distance.”

She said the “very first day, the route opens at 7 a.m. and closes at 7 p.m., so you do 20 miles in 12 hours.”

“The second day is similar, but you all have to be done on the third day by approximately 3 p.m.

“That’s when we all go into a holding area, and then all 3,000 of us go into Boston Common, together, for the closing ceremony, which is absolutely outstanding.”

Fisher hopes that “if folks feel like they could spare $20 or so, they would write out a check” to help her meet her goal.

Pastor Bob Carlson of the East Orrington Congregational Church invites the public to attend the church’s annual auction, which includes a social hour and buffet dinner.

The social hour begins at 5:30 p.m. Friday, April 19, at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer.

Dinner follows the social hour, and the auction begins at 7:30 p.m.

The donation admission is $25 per person, and the auction features “all new items and services,” Carlson wrote.

For more information about attending this event, call the church office at 825-3404.

Barb Smith, dean of the Bangor Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, invites you to attend a “Bach Bash” at 4 p.m. Sunday, April 21, at the Orono Methodist Church.

Smith reports that “Dr. David Klocko, dressed as Bach, will emcee the program, which will include organ, piano, harpsichord, instrumentalists and singers.”

Everyone is welcome to attend this educational and entertaining program, for which there is no admission charge, she wrote.

For more information about this presentation of the AGO, call Smith at 866-4150.

Here’s a reminder that tickets are available for the 2002 Fashion Show hosted by Altrusa International of Bangor 7-9 p.m. Monday, April 29, at the Campus Center at Husson College in Bangor.

The show will feature contemporary fashions for men, women and children.

Tickets are $12 per person and can be obtained by calling 989-2543.

Proceeds from the show help Altrusa International of Bangor to provide scholarship funds for women who want to continue their higher education in Maine.

This year’s goal is to extend the scholarships to even more Maine women.

You can help that effort by attending the show and, at the same time, getting a close-up look at new spring and summer fashions.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.