The Berns family launchÂÂed Kids for the Cure two years ago as a way to help in the battle against breast cancer, never knowing how soon that fight would hit home.
“The kids began it,” recalls Jonathan Berns. “Kids have a great way of getting their parents involved in their projects.” His wife Patti and their children, Josh and Dani, now 14 and 12, made phone calls from their Hunting Valley home, approached sponsors, designed fliers and recruited participants for the walk.
More than 1,000 kids and parents showed up at Lyndhurst’s Legacy Village for the 2004 Kids for the Cure event, raising more than $22,000 for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
“Seeing all those bodies is a tremendous relief,” Patti says, adding she was unsure at the time how many people would attend.
Then, in March 2005, as the Berns were once again preparing for the event, the family project turned into a family mission: Patti was diagnosed with breast cancer. The diagnosis gave Josh and Dani the knowledge to talk more openly about the disease.
“It made us feel like we should do [Kids for the Cure] even better than the year before,” says Dani.
Three weeks before the walk, Patti underwent a double mastectomy as family and friends helped Jonathan and the kids plan the 2005 event, which doubled in attendance and money raised. “What was more important than even raising the donations was raising the awareness,” Josh says.
Patti, now cancer-free, is once again involved and Kids for the Cure will return to Legacy Village on Mother’s Day. For more information about the May 14 event, visit www.komen.org.
