Some women bond through shopping, others through long conversations over coffee. But for a group of Carle Place moms, what has brought them together is joining in the fight against breast cancer.
When Nicole Servinskas first moved to Carle Place two years ago, she didn’t know anybody outside her family. But she soon made friends with some neighborhood moms whose children all played on the same soccer team. The ladies got close sitting on the sidelines during games, and later formed a book club, quickly establishing tight-knit friendships.
Servinskas had done the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer twice prior to moving to Carle Place, and now wanted to get her new friends in on what had been one of the greatest experiences of her life.
“I brought it up to them and everyone’s been touched by breast cancer in some way so it didn’t take much convincing,” she said.
So the team of nine moms from Carle Place, joined by two other recruits from out of town, came together to form “Carle Place Moms Save Second Base,” a team which will be participating in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in New York City on Oct. 18 and 19.
Each team member has to raise $1,800 to participate and half the team has already met or is close to meeting their goals. At the same time, Servinskas says, everything is a group effort. Not only has the team done joint fundraising, selling T-shirts, holding car washes, and hosting garage sales, to meet their team goal of $19,800, but they’ve also spent a lot of time walking together to train.
“We’ve been doing walks at night, for four or five miles. We have a group text and we’ll just text each other and see who can walk in the neighborhood. We’ve done a couple of walks in Eisenhower Park and Bethpage State Park,” she explains.
Though she’s done the walk in the past, Servinskas says the team’s closeness makes this one special.
“I’m with a group of girls I love dearly,” she said. “We’ve only known each other two years, but we’ve become so close and take care of each other and I think we just don’t want to see this happen to any of us.”
For team member Lauren Meserino, the walk has an extra special meaning. Meserino was diagnosed with breast cancer in late 2011 and after a double mastectomy in 2012, is now in remission.
“I was lucky enough to detect it early and have great doctors and insurance, but I know not everyone has that available,” she says. “So obviously the more money raised, the better.”
She’s never done a fundraiser or extended walk before, and is excited to undertake her first one with women she now considers her closest friends.
“We spend so much time together. For people I didn’t really know very well 10 months ago, I feel like they’re my closest friends now,” says Meserino.“When you walk 10 miles at a time, you really talk about everything. I don’t know of another way you can build a stronger bond. We spend so much time together raising money for the same cause, it’s brought everyone so close together.”
And on walk day, Elizabeth Sandonato says that having friends close by will make a huge difference.
“We’ll be pushing each other to continue the walk. I know this is going to be a daunting task because it’s 40 miles. But we’ll give each other the motivation to push on and continue to persevere through all of this,” Sandonato said.
To find out more or to donate, visit http://bit.ly/1v4UMmg or contact Nicole Servinskas at nicolekorab@hotmail.com
