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Making Strides 2009
Oct 29, 2009 2:47 PM
Supporting 'strong women fighting to live'
President Michael Mulgrew joins the UFT group, whose spirits were not dampened by the rain.
[For more photos, go to the “Making Strides 2009” gallery]
Hats off to the UFTers who faced pelting rain, wind and record low temperatures to keep their commitment to taking part in the annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk on Oct. 18.
Commitment is what it was all about for the thousands who headed into the nor’easter in all five boroughs.
Robbin DiPalma, chapter leader of IS 27 on Staten Island, spoke with pride of the 35 students who showed up at Clove Lake Park, which was fast turning into a mud hole after three days of rain. Despite being told by the 15 teachers representing the school that they could go home, the students turned down the offer because, they said, “We made a commitment.”
A breast cancer survivor herself, DiPalma said, “You didn’t hear one complaint.” Maybe that’s because the whole school was behind that commitment. On the Friday before the walk, staff and students turned the school into a day of pink and raised $3,000 from the sale of T-shirts and scarves.
Teacher Jeana Gardner of PS 72 joined the hundreds of UFTers in Manhattan’s Central Park as a first-time walker after her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“I was overwhelmed by all those in attendance in the rain and the cold,” she said. “I came across strong women fighting to live, fighting and surviving, adding another candle to their birthday cakes.”
Retiree Christine Morrison, of Boys and Girls HS in Brooklyn.
Kim Woolfalk, Sloane Eisen and Patricia Pion of PS 75 in Manhattan were on message.
She pledged to continue walking in the future in support of all cancer patients, adding, “Te quiero con todo me alma, mama (I love you with all my heart, mom)!”
PS 180, Brooklyn, Chapter Leader Lynette Azar, walking with her daughter Tamara Azar-Lopez of Utrecht HS, called the Prospect Park marchers “inspiring.”
Among them were 20 teachers, paras, nurses and parents from PS 156 wearing buttons that said, “We walk for our friend and co-worker Sharon Coates,” who died in August, according to Chapter Leader Grace Small.
Debbie Petrus-Torrence of Manhattan’s Global Neighborhood Secondary School marched with Miriam Suazo-Moore of PS 107 in the Bronx, who was wearing a custom-made pink shirt and said, “I get one done every year in honor of my mom. She was a survivor.”
Seventy-five New Utrecht students marched with their teachers wearing ponchos that woodworking teacher Richard Astromonti had bought for them. Chapter Leader Cathy Daskalakis described a wooden sign he had carved marking the high school’s participation in the march.
A survivor of two breast cancer surgeries, Chapter Leader Fern Carriero of PS/IS 207 spoke of the strong support of her school. Not only did students walk with their families and teachers but they also raised $1,500 on “pink day” at a bake sale.
While weather accounted for lower numbers than last year and the amount of money raised was still being counted at press time, there was a strong UFT presence at each of the five borough sites and at Jones Beach where UFTers and NYSUT members from Nassau and Suffolk joined forces.
The union effort was coordinated by Servia Silva, the District 4 representative, who also headed the Manhattan contingent. site leaders included Kisha Johnson of the UFT Welfare Fund, Theresa Samuels for Brooklyn, Hector Ruiz Jr. and Nanette Sanchez-Rosario for the Bronx, Greer Hansen-Velazquez for Queens, Sherylyn Bailey of IS 72 for Staten Island and Fran Miller at Jones Beach.
Neither wind nor rain nor mud kept these Staten Island activists from their appointed rounds: (from left) Tonia Russo, Detra Penny, Trish Mezzacappa, Helen Settles, Roseanne Alkhatib and Mark Zink.
The staff at PS 304 in the Bronx dedicated their walk to a school aide who is currently on leave and being treated for breast cancer. The school raised $1,900 for the cause.
This group from Brooklyn’s PS 306 came to Prospect Park to join the Strides march there.
