Teams

Team Boobie-Do!

Garage Headquarters: Hinesville, GA

Driver: Edith Allison

Mechanics: Odessa Morman, Jean Marie Allison

Nuts and Bolts:

Everybody has a personal way of dealing with cancer and its aftermath. For some people, laughter is the best medicine – especially when it’s combined with adventure. That’s certainly the treatment prescribed by Dr. Edith Allison. Dr. Edith is a breast cancer survivor who, when she was diagnosed in 2006, became determined not only to beat the disease, but to live life to the fullest. She started a blog (http://edidod.blogspot.com/2009/03/welcome.html) chronicling her exploits, which so far have included everything from attending Space Camp to finishing her doctorate in education, and from appearing on a sit-com to – yes! – beating cancer. Next up: contending in Atlanta’s Red Bull Soapbox Race.

Joining Dr. Edith on Tenth Street will be her sister Jean Marie Allison, who manages an emergency room, as well as Dr. Odessa Morman, an assistant principal. (Dr. Edith and Dr. Odessa work together at Diamond Elementary School in Fort Stewart, Georgia.) With a car they call “Boobie-Do,” these smart women will be using their (pardon the expression) melons to, ahem, rack up some impressive numbers on race day.

Dr. Edith needs to get something off her chest: “I want to celebrate my victory over the disease,” she crows with a dazzling smile. “This is all about finding my wiiings to fly!” These ladies haven’t competed in a soapbox event before, but video highlights keep them, you know, abreast of the competitive situation, and they’re building a suitably curvy racer bedecked with pink ribbons and a sun umbrella. (They don’t like skin cancer, either.) “I think seeing two middle-aged women screaming like sissies from the ramp to the finish line will be very crowd pleasing,” says Dr. Edith pointedly. If she clocks the fastest time and takes first place, the team will be tickled pink, but they’ll be just as happy if they simply titillate the crowd with their infectious enthusiasm. The good doctor and her friends know that with a Soapbox race, as with many things in life, being a survivor is a victory in itself.