Walkers raise $7,600 to benefit women’s shelter
By Christina Leslie
Correspondent
The t-shirt clad,
sunglasses-wearing, waterbottle-toting walkers
of all ages left the parking
lot of Immaculata High
School, Somerville, and took
to the streets for the three-mile
hike through downtown
Somerville Sept. 12.
The nearly 100 walkers who participated in the Baby Steps Walk-a-thon raised funds to benefit the Center for Great Expectations, Somerville, a six-bed residential facility for pregnant homeless women and adolescents and their babies. This year’s walkathon raised $7,600.
The Center offers classes in cooking/nutrition, anger
management, child
care and other life skills. Individual and
group counseling is offered, and the
women are encouraged to work toward
their General Education Development
degrees with the help of the 24-hour staff.
Currently, space restraints preclude the
residents from staying past their babies’ birth; thus, the center’s
eventual goal is
to build a larger facility where mothers
and their newborns can take up residence
for an additional year to further them
along their path to independence.
As the event kicked off, Presentation Sister Margaret Muller, director of program outreach for the center, served as event organizer and enthusiastic cheerleader while the band from Immaculata High School, creating a sea of blue and white, energized the walkers with rousing tunes.
Most of the walkers came from surrounding parishes, including Immaculate Conception Parish, Somerville; Our Lady of Mercy Parish, South Bound Brook; Mary, Mother of God Parish, Hillsborough; Our Lady of Mount Virgin Parish, Middlesex, and Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, Whitehouse Station.
Participants cited various reasons for walking that day. Bob Keeling of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish has been taking part in the walk-a-thon each year with his family since its inception. Though his children have grown and his wife has recently become ill, he continued his tradition “for all of them, as a Keeling family representative.”
Pete Stadtmueller and his 10-yearold daughter, Maria, of Mary, Mother of God Parish, held hands as they crossed Main Street.
“All four of my kids attend Catholic schools and are involved in the Church, and this is a worthy cause,” Stadtmueller said.
A quartet of walkers from Our Lady of Mount Virgin celebrated the gift of life as they walked. Jean Marano and her 13- year-old daughter Katie accompanied Elizabeth Miller and 13-year-old Brittany to celebrate Brittany’s birthday. The teenagers decided to celebrate that day by doing a good deed rather than throw a party, and the walkathon fit the bill. Their mothers enthusiastically proclaimed that walking outside beat a workout on the treadmill any day and that they were “getting good exercise for a good cause.”
The Stamile family from Our Lady of Mercy Parish walked with their friend Debbie Kubeck. Rick and Sue Stamile said they were proud of their daughters’ stamina, and 13-year-old Brittany and 9- year-old Shannon had an extra spring in their step after their parents’ praise.
Sue Stamile stated, “We participated to put our money where our mouth is and support those who don’t have as much as we do.”
As the group walked past the memorial clock in downtown Somerville whose plaque read “Time to Remember,” she continued, “It was important to do something good after the 9/11 tributes yesterday and the tragedy of such magnitude.”
Kubeck mentioned that Our Lady of Mercy Parish youth group collected donations after Masses the weekend prior to the walkathon, raising more than $200 for the center.
As the participants drew closer to the
parking lot finish line, a few tired walkers
emitted muffled cheers. Sister Margaret
thanked everyone and expressed her
gratitude on behalf of the center, promising
that the young mothers would benefit
greatly from the efforts of all involved.
*The attached/referenced article was originally published in The Catholic Spirit, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Metuchen, and is protected under U.S. and international copyright law