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65,000 take part in breast cancer awareness walk
An estimated crowd of 65,000 people clad in pink raised $2.7 million for breast cancer research and awareness on Oct. 18 at Jones Beach in the annual Making Strides of Long Island Walk.
While walkers came from all over, many were from Wantagh and Seaford, and made the short trek to the boardwalk on a sunny but chilly Sunday morning. Thousands of teams honored both survivors and victims of the disease. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
“It was a pretty overwhelming event,” said Patty Lestrange, a spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society. “It was a sea of pink on the Boardwalk.”
Lestrange said that attendance was consistent with previous years, and the only annual event that draws a larger crowd to Jones Beach is the Memorial Day weekend air show.
The Seaford High School Key Club sent about 40 students to the walk. “It’s something that hits home for a lot of the students,” said adviser Keri Degnan. “Almost all of them know somebody who’s been affected by this.”
Degnan said that the Key Club made a group donation to the American Cancer Society, and many students also raised money individually in honor of a family member or friends affected by the disease.
Dolores Persky, of Wantagh, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007, was treated and went into remission, and then the cancer came back in 2012. She is still battling. “I’m doing everything I can to fight because I’ve got two girls to live for,” she said, referring to her 16- and 21-year-old daughters. “It’s been a tough journey.”
Persky and a team of 25 family members and friends, Team Dolores, walked at Jones Beach on Sunday. She said it was touching that they all came out to support her, and others who have been afflicted by a disease that is “not a walk in the park.”
“It gives you the will to want to fight because you see these people wanting to help you,” said Persky, who has a foundation that provides wigs to women with cancer, and also prepares dinner for them and their families while they undergo treatment.
Wantagh High School’s Key Club had about 25 members at the walk. One’s aunt is a survivor, and another lost their mother to breast cancer. “It raises awareness for a cause that so many people are affected by,” said Key Club President Christina DePaulis, a senior. “It’s just a huge mass of people walking and raising money for a cure.”
The week before, DePaulis took part in the pancreatic cancer walk at Jones Beach in honor of her grandmother. This time, she was joined by her classmates, who all wore pink and raised money for a cure. “The Key Club’s mission is to serve our community and to help others,” she said, “and so many people in our community have been affected by this horrible cancer.”
Allison Leshowitz, of Hewlett, was 3 when her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer for the first of several times, but she has now been in remission for nine years. Leshowitz, a graduate student at SUNY New Paltz, did the walk for the first time and said her mother has been going for several years because she likes to interact with other survivors.
Leshowitz said that the part of the walk that stood out for her was the “My Stride Counts For” wall. Participants were given pink ribbons, and on them they wrote their reasons for attending the walk, then attached them to a fence.
“I thought it was fun,” Leshowitz said. “It’s really nice to see all of the different families come together.”
Mary Bonafede, of Seaford, has done the walk since 1995. That was the year her mother, Joan, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Two years later, she died.
Bonafede, 24, and her group of about 20 participants all wore shirts with her mother’s picture on the front and “All 4 U” on the back.
“Pink looks good on everybody that day,” she said, adding that every year the group also includes Bonafede’s cousin, Leigh, a breast cancer survivor.
The walk is cathartic for Bonafede, who, along with her brother, lost their mother when they were children. “For me it’s a great experience,” she said. “My family gets to get together, they share stories.”
She described her mother as a good person with a good heart, and very giving. Bonafede said everyone tells her she has her mother’s blue eyes.
The only year Bonafede missed the walk, she was in college at Johnson & Wales in Rhode Island, so she walked five miles up there in honor of her mother.
Bonafede noted that her mother lived for two years after her initial diagnosis, which was longer than doctors expected. She wants to change the fortunes of other women who get breast cancer, and hopes that by raising money and awareness, there will be more survivors. “I just hope that they can find a cure,” she said, “and nobody has to go through what my family went through.”
