Hope Center to observe National Cancer Survivors Day
The Hope Center will be observing National Cancer Survivors Day at 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. May 31 at Buckley Homestead County Park located at 3606 Belshaw Rd. in Lowell.
According to Kathy Midkiff, mother-in-law of Hope Center founder Kerri Midkiff, National Cancer Survivors Day is typically observed on the first Sunday in June. When the Hope Center first started, Kerri initiated the Butterfly 5k Trail Run and Walk. Kerri started to connect with the National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation just a couple of years before she passed away in 2018.
Midkiff is preserving her daughter-in-law’s legacy by continuing her work with the Hope Center. She said the event is one of the Hope Center’s best opportunities for community outreach. Midkiff said the event is to acknowledge everything the cancer patient, their families and friends have went through. She said they are all known as survivors.
“They're considered a survivor from the time they've received their diagnosis to their end of life,” Midkiff explained. “They they are always considered a survivor.”
Midkiff said they’re hoping to use the yellow butterflies to mark the path of their walk. She will be working with J.R. Mitsch of the Rotary Club of Lowell to make some more of those butterflies. Midkiff believes the butterflies have a significance that was important to Kerri.
“It’s something about the life cycle of the butterfly,” Midkiff explained. “It ends up with a beautiful butterfly that flies away.”
When Kerri first started the Hope Center, there were three groups; a group for the survivors, a group of the caregivers and one for those with children, according to Midkiff. However, they couldn’t meet during the COVID-19 lockdowns, so the center shut down for a few years, she noted. With the Hope Center now meeting again, there is only one group, Midkiff said.
“Currently we are just meeting with mainly survivors,” Midkiff said. “It's a support group. They just share with each other. We've had a couple of caregivers come in also, which they learn from the survivors and the survivors from the caregivers, because so many times they don't know what to say or what to do. We'll get a newly diagnosed person come in and they usually don't want to share at all.”
The Hope Center’s Family Fun events were part of Kerri’s original vision, Midkiff said. Kerri started the events to try to give the Hope Center families some semblance of normalcy, she said. Midkiff explained they would host Christmas parties, bowling and painting among other activities, all of which are free to the families.
The Hope Center meets at Lowell Church of Christ located at 299 N. Burr St. on the first and third Thursdays of every month. For more information on the Hope Center, please visit them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cancerhopecenter.