Michigan Men Take It Off to Benefit Breast Cancer

BY CASSANDRA SPRATLING
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER


Two Michigan men have landed in a place neither of them ever thought they'd be -- naked, well, nearly naked, in a calendar.
It's slightly naughty, but it's for a good cause.
Jeremy Watmuff (Mr. May) and Dr. Ken Colton (Mr. October) are featured in the 60-Mile Men 2010 calendar.
It's produced and sold to support the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk, which raises money for research, treatment and prevention of breast cancer. The 60-mile walk begins today and Misters May and October are among the estimated 3,000 people who are committed to walking from Dearborn to Ann Arbor this weekend.
The 2010 calendar, which sells for $20, is the third edition of the calendar produced by 60-Mile Men Inc., a Michigan-based support group that raises money for the 3-Day.
Founder Matthew Pickus of Ann Arbor got the fund-raising idea while participating in the 2006 walk. He later appeared as Mr. January in the first calendar in 2008.
Men submit online applications to appear in the calendar. Participants must be men who work or walk in the 3-Day.
It's Colton's first time in the calendar, but his third in the walk.
Colton, 52, a family practice physician in Westland, and his wife, Amy Colton, 55, began walking in 2007, two years after she was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer.
"I diagnose breast cancer on unfortunately a high rate of my patients," Colton says. "For the sake of my wife and my patients, we both wanted to do more toward ending breast cancer."
Mr. May, a.k.a. Watmuff, 31, a bank manager in Warren, also plans to walk in the 3-Day this year, something he did initially because he was looking for a way to give back.
"But once I started trying to raise money and talking with my friends and family, I realized how many people I know who I never knew are either affected by breast cancer or know someone who is," he says. "Each one gives me more reasons to walk."
As for the calendar, "It's something I never expected I'd be doing in my entire life," says Watmuff. "But it ended up being a lot of fun. It's all done in good taste. At times I felt like a star."