I just got back from an event for the Adcraft Club of Detroit where I sat on a panel discussion on social media. It was a lot of fun, and I had the opportunity to participate with some really smart people in this area.

So naturally I inserted my breast cancer story because…

1. I typically don’t go anywhere without talking about breast cancer—it’s a big part of who I am and…

2. It essentially launched my career into the world of social media so it’s actually quite relevant.

I got some nice feedback which always feels pretty good too.

As I was getting ready to leave, a woman approached me and told me she had a crazy story for me. I was expecting a breast cancer story—that’s typically the category of stories I hear the most.

Instead she said “I have your Camelbak” Not what I was expecting.

But let me back up for a minute and give you a little background. First, if you don’t know, a Camelbak is a backpack that you fill with water and wear on long hikes, bike rides or 60 mile walks in my case. On Day 1 of the 08 Breast Cancer 3-Day, my top strap broke. I was able to tie it together with a pair of pink shoe laces to get me through the rest of the walk which worked pretty well.

When I got back from the walk, I took the Camelbak back to Moosejaw to get a new piece for the strap. They thought it would be easier to take the whole bag, send it back to Camelbak and have it fixed. I was done with long walks for awhile so that seemed fine. A couple of times throughout the winter, I checked back on my pack and they told me they’d call me when it came back. I didn’t question it until I decided I was ready to start doing some longer walks and really wanted my Camelbak.

After some discussions over a period of a week with Moosejaw, they realized my Camelbak was lost and gave me a brand new one. I really never thought about my old Camelbak that took me through so many training walks and 60 miles . . . until tonight.

Here’s how the story unfolded. My new friend went to Moosejaw and bought a used Camelbak on clearance. As she was hiking through Maui, she reached into one of the pockets and found a sunscreen packet. She was pretty happy to have it and used it since it was a higher SPF than what she brought. She dug through the bag a bit more to see if there was anything else and found my speech from the Breast Cancer 3-Day. The speech told my story—I shared it with the 3-Day walkers on day 2.

As she dug deeper, she found a breast cancer charm, given to me by one of my teammates. I remember wondering where this charm went.  Apparently, she’s been meaning to track me down since she got back so she could send me the charm and now in the most random place, she found me. She’s keeping the charm now—it’s got to bring luck.

So this really was a crazy, small world, wow kind of story. And now the mystery is solved.

P.S. Moosejaw—if you’re reading this, two of the five panel members complimented you on your great use of social media marketing. And if you really do a good job monitoring your brand, you likely found this post pretty quickly.