Talk about girl power! "Team Tracy", a 16 women team around cancer survivor and reluctant hero, Tracy Dart, raised $40,000 for breast cancer research during the Susan G. Koman 3-Day for the Cure this past weekend.

The 60-mile walk went Friday to Monday, Sept. 16-18, and routed an estimated 2,000 walkers through Seattle and the East Side. The walk concluded at Seattle Center where volunteers, family members and friends greeted walkers marching into Memorial Stadium.

For Dart this was her fifth year participating. She is concluding another round of chemo therapy and has become a local icon and reluctant celebrity for the cause, supporting breast cancer fundraising and offering moral support for other survivors and their families and friends, while dealing with her own struggle.

"This was a difficult year for me to be out there because I am in the middle of chemo and my doctors were pretty, well, they knew I wanted to be out there and made sure I didn't over do it," Dart said. "I can walk a mile and I am done for a bit. They have sweep crew who will take you to the next pit stop. They'd drive by and were like, 'Tracy, are you OK?' Knowing I wasn't going to be stuck out on the route was a comfort. I probably walked 6 miles a day. That's about all I could do. Most of the team walked all 60."

Ballard's Carter Volkswagen and Subaru is a big supporter of the event and provided the "walker/stalker" car as Dart described it, picking people up, cheering on the participants and run errands.

"We're very appreciative of the opportunity to support a really, really good cause," said Bryan DeAnda, salesman, Carter Volkswagen and Subaru. "Team Tracy is great to work with."

Dart plans to take a week off, then dive right back into fundraising for 2012's walk for which each participant must raise $2,300 to walk.

"As soon as a teammate reaches $2,300 I encourage them to donate to other teammates who didn't quite meet the $2,300," Dart said. "It was stressful leading up to the very last minute.

"With the economy the way it is, we got a lot more people who donated in the $10-$50 range, not so much the $100 $500-type donations," she acknowledged. "It has become a lot more of a grass roots fundraising. You sell bracelets for five dollars or T-shirts for twenty. People want to donate, but everybody is in a different financial situation and for many, giving you 30 dollars comes out of their grocery and gas money."

Dart wants to acknowledge the other 15 Team Tracy members: Jennifer Witsoe, Trudy Muller, Desiree Holweger, Loreen Parkerson, Dena Johnson, Eleni French, Jennifer Rice and Stephanie Moores,Samantha Prokopy, Marti Thomas, Jody Morrow, Lori McGovern, Emily McDonald, Sarah Swanson and Dawn Cox. Dart is the only team member with breast cancer, she said.

She also wanted to acknowledge the following:

The Seattle Police Department

"This year the Seattle Police Department had nearly 50 who rode bikes, helped with security and had support crew," Dart said. "All volunteered. They were just awesome. I can't say enough about the Seattle Police Department and what they did last weekend. They were still with us even though we were walking in Redmond. They remembered you along the route. Some had pink tires. Some of the guys were wearing pink knee high socks. They made an effort.

Memorial Stadium

"Walking into Seattle Center you turn a corner at one point and the whole place is lined with family, friends, and other walkers," Dart recalled. "Until you see it and you are there you may not understand how emotional it's going to be. Friends came down and brought us flowers. That's kind of the cherry on top, walking in together. A lot of tears were shed. It's hard not to feel touched by that."

Trudy Muller, Tracy's tent mate second year in a row

Team member Trudy Muller, who owns and operates Envy on Alki skin boutique, shared a tent with Dart both nights. She recalled a mishap on Sunday night's campout at Marymoor Park.

"Marymoor forgot to turn the sprinklers off and so at 4:15 am we had to run across the park with our tents, and I needed to put some clothes on," Muller chuckled. "There were like 2,000 people running with their tents."

Added Dart, "It was mass chaos. 'Mud puddle for the cure'."

"This was my second year," said Muller, who was still limping Tuesday. "I raised $3,200 but gave some to other team members who weren't able to raise the $2,300. I died my hair pink and wore a few feathers in it just to create more hype. It helped me fundraise at work and around the neighborhood."

Team Tracy supporter Mike Barbre, Alki resident & friend of Tracy

"I've been a consistent source of support for Tracy since I have known her, about three years," said Barbre. "she's such an inspirational figure to so many people. It's amazing how many people she has reached in such a short period of time, and touched so many people known and unknown. My aunt Lois had to go through treatment and it was a trying time for her, but she caught it early and made it through. She's a better person for it. I wouldn't call it a gift, but it made her really treasure life a lot more.

"Whether she likes to admit it or not 'Team Tracy' has become a brand," said Barbre of Dart and her modesty. "Her goal isn't attention. It's letting people in on this insideous disease and how to kill it and destroy it in any way possible and that's what she does with success every single year. She reminds people of what it is going to take to beat this thing and is living proof that grace and crazy tough work can go together in a great package."