Cancer walk exceeds expectations
2,700 participants raise $182,000 in Making Strides event
Oct. 20, 2003

ELIZABETH COOPER
Observer-Dispatch

MARCY -- Six-year-old Taylor Miller's bright eyes and sunny smile are a stark reminder why 2,700 people came out Sunday for the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk.

The vivacious blond girl from Verona had come out on the cold, damp morning to support her mother, Sandy Miller, who has the disease.

Taylor and six of her fellow Brownies from Verona's Girl Scout Troop 736 were busy handing out chocolate chip cookies to the walkers Sunday at the SUNY Institute of Technology.

The eighth annual walk, which is two and a half or five miles, raised $182,000 dollars to help find a cure for breast cancer. That was $7,000 more than expected, organizers said.

Asked why she was there, Taylor said simply, "To help my mom."

Though it wasn't clear just how much this young child really understood of her mother's predicament, she was among hundreds of others who knew all too well.

Tracy Kinsella of Utica was there as a volunteer because her mother, Janice Caulkins, has breast cancer. Her son, Dillon, was by her side, manning a table full of ACS T-shirts.

"There's nothing I can do for her physically to make her better," she said. "Doing this makes you feel better, like you're doing what little you can."

Others felt the same.

Jeannette Fardan and Gloria Rice walked with their friend, Angela Smith, a 20-year survivor of the disease.

A team of female Herkimer County employees came for their friend, survivor Carol Acquaviva. And team member and Herkimer County Clerk Sylvia Rowan also said her sister died of the disease.

A group of eight students from West Canada Valley High School was there, too. Crystal Jones, 16, said she'd become aware of breast cancer when her aunt died three years ago at 33.

Karen Christensen, who had the disease 17 years ago and now coordinates the area's After Breast Cancer Support Network, said the walk serves a dual purpose.

"It's about research and bringing an end to breast cancer," she said. "But for women who've had it, we come out and see hundreds and hundreds of people who are out doing something to help us."

She also said the walkers offer one another support.

"There are women here today who are more recently diagnosed," she said. "When they come here and see so many pink shirts (worn by people who have survived the disease), it gives them hope."

May Reilly has participated in breast cancer research fund-raisers since 1980, when a colleague died of the illness. But, in 1999, she, too was diagnosed with breast cancer.

"It never even occurred to me that it would ever happen to me," the 68-year-old said.

Barbara Jimenez, too, walked in the fund-raiser for years before she was diagnosed.

As she walked speedily past, a bandana covering hair decimated by chemotherapy and radiation, she said, "Keep us in your prayers."

ABOUT THE WALK

Since 1993, the American Cancer Society's Making Strides Against Breast Cancer event has raised awareness and dollars to fight breast cancer. Last year, 400,000 walkers across the country raised more than $28 million for research, advocacy, education and patient service programs to defeat the disease.

Source: American Cancer Society