There are walks to support lots of good causes. And then there is the Beverly Breast Cancer Walk.
Not only has the annual Mother’s Day event drawn thousands of participants, who have raised more than $5 million over the years, it has captured the hearts and porches and lawns of the historic community it ambles through.
Bands take to stages, Irish dancers jig, Mass is said indoors and out, and the Mother McAuley High School a capella choir fills the Southwest Side neighborhood with song.
The same fanfare is expected when the 3-mile walk steps off again this year at 8 a.m. on May 13 (www.beverlybreastcancerwalk.org).
“People decorate their houses. They decorate the blocks,” said Carol Moriarty, 74, a 25-year survivor and a co-founder of the 19-year event.
“It’s not only a bonding for women, it’s a bonding for the community,” Moriarty said. “It’s become a Mother’s Day tradition.”
The BBCW began organically as an offshoot of the national Y-ME walk in downtown Chicago. It had 30 participants its first year and raised $1,000, co-founder Lisa O’Brien said. By contrast, last year’s event drew 14,000 walkers who raised more than $550,000, she added.
The money is used to buy equipment and services for breast cancer patients at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park, said O’Brien, who lives in Beverly.
Two new priorities of the fundraiser aim to support breast cancer patients enduring financial hardship and a “sister-walk” partnership with the international organization People Helping People to bring diagnostic equipment, oncology supplies and medical services to breast cancer patients in San Salvador, El Salvador, O’Brien said.
“Our primary goal is to provide support for the hospital,” O’Brien said. “We support therapies, clinical trials, a nurse navigator dedicated to breast cancer patients” as well as mammography equipment purchases and other services, she said.
“But a couple of years ago when we were reviewing our funds we became aware of women within the Little Company of Mary community who were going through breast cancer treatment who needed some financial assistance,” she said. “People can be doing fine financially and all of a sudden they’re hit with a devastating illness and it can set them back. They miss work, they’re sick, they have medical payments and all of a sudden a mortgage is missed, a car payment is missed.”
The BBCW crisis fund can help patients with daily expenses, co-pays and deductibles, medications or other short-term financial needs. Since its inception in 2016, it has helped more than 30 women, O’Brien said.
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Among the first patients to benefit from it was a homeless woman, said Erin Hosty, a walk volunteer and eight-year breast cancer survivor. The assistance enabled that woman, who had been living in her car, to spend some time in a hotel following her surgery, Hosty said.
Lisa Williams-Dunn also was a recipient.
The 49-year-old Chicago resident was diagnosed with breast cancer in October, 2016. She had been working as a clerk for a Chicago Public School but had to take time off while going through treatment because it made her sick and because she didn’t want to expose herself to additional germs.
When she was finally able to go back to work, she was hit with another diagnosis and then, ultimately, let go from her job.
The crisis fund covered some of her expenses during that time. In all, she said, she received about $7,000 in assistance.
“I cried so much when they called and told me they could take care of some of those bills,” she said. “I know of angels and I know of miracles, but to have these walking angels willing to help cry babies like me meant so much.”
Now that Williams-Dunn is finished with treatment and back to work part-time, hoping for full-time employment, she said she looks forward to participating in the walk.
“The walk is something I have to do this year, because it meant so much to me and my family to have that burden lifted off of us,” she said. “I have to walk to say ‘thank you’ and to be a part of the group, the other ladies that are going through, or have been through, this.”
Hosty, a retired radiology worker at the hospital, said before she became a survivor, she was “just a walker.”
“My kids and I did the walk for a couple of years and then I realized Little Company should have a team. So I organized one,” she said.
She continued to walk, even after she was diagnosed and undergoing treatment.
“I was going through chemo and wasn’t sure I could walk but I said to the kids, ‘We are doing this,'” she said. “There are trolleys for people who can’t do the walk.
“To see these women and know they are going through this is so moving,” said Hosty, a 67-year-old resident of Palos Heights. “To talk with them and share stories means everything.”
Beverly Breast Cancer Walk
When: 8 a.m. Mother’s Day, May 13; Outdoor Mass at 6:30 a.m. Registration begins at 7 a.m., in advance from 4 to 7 p.m. May 9 at Little Company of Mary Hospital, 2800 W. 95th St., Evergreen Park
Where: Ridge Park, 96th and Longwood, Chicago
Register: $30 in advance; $15 for 18 and under. Same-day registration is $10 more for adults, $5 more for 18 and under. T-shirt availability not guaranteed for day-of registrants.
Information: www.BeverlyBreastCancerWalk.org
