Robin Hutchinson

Posted February 19, 2010, 5:55 pm in Five Questions With

The WPFT Community is launching a new series called Five Questions With. The series is designed to help WPFT volunteers get to know each other by sharing pictures and comments about themselves and their involvement with WPFT.

Why is volunteering important to you?

I have been blessed in life and cannot begin to match those blessing I have been bestowed. Volunteering is a very small thanks for life, God's blessing and the freedoms of this country. It make a person so much better of a human being, then not to volunteer. "You make a living by what you get, you make a LIFE by what your give" - Winston Churchill.

Growing up in a military faith based family, my parents modeled giving of time and resources. With such a gift to model for my own children, it has carried on to the next generation. When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die. When you give, you really live.

What is your favorite WPFT Event?

My event is biased due to my admiration for the WOW Breast Cancer Dragon Boat team. The event was the Walt Disney International Dragon Boat Festival. The WOW team are an amazing group of women who have found that Dragon Boating has given them the power and strength to walk through their diagnosis of breast cancer. The event was not an event it was 22 women in the fight for their life. They showed strength beyond anything I had ever seen. Together they climbed to heights never seen individually.

If you could speak to every women being treated for cancer, what would you say?

Never give up on hope and the promise of a new treatment. When I started working in this industry 23 years ago there was one treatment for breast cancer and everyone was treated the same way. Daily new research is being developed for very specific and different types of breast cancer. What use to be thought of as one disease is now considered to have dozens of different types of breast cancer. Each of those types of breast cancer will be treated differently resulting in saving lives and patients living longer.

What would surprise most people to learn about you?

I'm not sure what would surprise people about me because I'm pretty transparent. What you see is what you get. I guess one thing that might surprise people is that I can dance and I have Betty Crocker tendencies.

What is your favorite pastime?

My favorite past time is anything outdoors. The outdoors are an amazing place to explore, God's gift to the human race. Dragon Boating is great. I'm too old to run anymore, so I walk. I love the beach, but only with my shorts and a shirt these days. Snowing skiing is one of my greatest loves, but with a bunch of kids in college (2 out of state) snow skiing has been put o the back burner. I lift free weights and play racquetball. Growing up military, you grow up with a golf course with in walking distance. I can drive the hell out of a ball ( about 250/300yds) but the rest is up to someone else (scramble). The expression "give a man a fish, feeds him for a day. Teach him to fish, he can feed himself for a lifetime" Fishing is fun too. Anything outdoors.

Is there anything else you would like to share?

My challenge to any and all is to give of yourself, no matter how great or small. A phone call to a patient can give them the hope to live another day. A dollar to research may be the dollar to lead a drug that offers a 90% or 100% survival rate for a family member, it could be your family member. When you leave this earth, you can take nothing with you ( no u-haul on the back of a hearse) you can only leave what you give. When you've touched a heart or soul, you've made an impact on mankind. What are you made of???

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