Building Futures

BY BEATRIZ TERRAZAS

Breast cancer survivors find a constructive outlet for their altruism.

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March 1: From left: Breast cancer volunteers begin placing walls on the first Saturday of the build. Catherine Harvey-Edwards (center photo, at left) gets help from Maria Gaffner and Beverly Windsor as she nails the wall into place. Gaffner and Harvey-Edwards take a minute to celebrate completion of the wall.

Juanita Valdez, a single mother of two boys, has sometimes seemed a bit overwhelmed by the help she is receiving.

“They’ve been through so much and they’re trying to help somebody else,” she says of the women who raised walls, pounded nails, and cut siding. “It makes me feel wonderful.”

The project has brought together “a rainbow coalition,” notes Breast Cancer Builds volunteer coordinator Linda Lydia, 58, a local real estate agent. “We’re all drawn to it for the same reason,” says Lydia, an 11-year survivor. “If we’re not survivors we have a family member or a friend. … Such a bond develops with people who’ve been through this disease.”

March 15: Juanita Valdez and her 12-year-old son James stand in front of another house being built while they wait for construction to begin on their home.

Elaine Linn, a four-year survivor, quickly became a favorite among the volunteers. More than once she joked about her obvious lack of hair ever since cancer treatment in 2004. “But hey, I don’t have bad hair days.”

It’s a privilege to have a body well enough, and in shape enough, to come out and participate, says Linn, 65, an accountant. “I’m in great debt to the doctors and women that have come before. … It’s very important that people who have just been diagnosed know it’s not a death sentence. There are things beyond that.” That was precisely the message Patterson hoped to impart with Breast Cancer
Builds.

She echoes it in her closing words at the home’s dedication: “I am a survivor of breast cancer, and on Tuesday of this week I celebrated one year of life. … I call this a gratitude project because I am grateful, and we’re showing how grateful we are to the world.”

April 5: Volunteers (above) cut siding for the house. Elaine Linn (below) carries trash away from the construction site.

April 12: From top left: A volunteer paints in the background while Dowdle gives Candy Sheehan instructions for spackling the garage. Cathy Green (in pink shirt) joined Sheehan in her spackling duties. Second row, from left: Linda Lydia spackles the porch ceiling before painting begins while Sheron Patterson's husband, Robert, paints siding. Valdez explores one of the bedrooms in her new home.

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