Ericha Schmidt won the “Benevolent Bachelorette Of The Year” Award
8
knows about the struggles people
with cancer go through, giving a
listening ear to her clients who have
either struggled with cancer them-
selves or had a family member who
has battled the disease.
“When they get in my chair,
they talk and I listen. When they
tell me about their burdens and
they don’t know where to turn, I’m
excited to tell them about the Careity
Foundation and all that they have
to offer. No one can afford cancer.
Cancer doesn’t care what your bank
account or your 401(k) looks like.
It’s out to drain you physically and
financially. I’m proud to say that the
Careity Foundation is there to provide
mammograms, diagnostics and biop-
sies. The staff includes social work-
ers, cancer navigators and more.” she
said.
As for the two Careity founders,
Beverly Branch and Lyn Walsh, they
are over the moon that their bache-
lorette and friend, with Careity’s help,
was able to help them raise so much
money and were pleased that Careity
earned the title, Charity of the Year.
“Just think how many lives that
we can save with this. Thank you
Carol. You were awesome. I’m
exhausted but we love you dearly,”
Walsh said.
Walsh said that she’s happy to
have won the competition during
Breast Cancer Awareness Month,
but that Careity is much more than
awareness.
“It’s incredible because breast
cancer awareness is there, but it
doesn’t touch the patients that we
touch. We actually touch patients
and save lives. Awareness is good,
but it’s not good unless we help and
save lives,” she said.
The concept behind Sweet Charity
& Bachelorettes took root in 2011
when Parker County Today publisher
Marsha Brown and Art Director
Steven Schillio were inspired to
launch the Bachelorette fundraising
event after having dinner with Walsh
and Branch a few days following a
Careity fundraising event.
“They were both exhausted,”
Brown said. “We were worried about
their health, that’s how tired they
both were. They talked about how
cutting back on what they did wasn’t
really an option because the popula-
tion of their coverage area is growing
and cancer, in general is on the rise.
They also said that most of the other
local charities were in the same boat
that they were. We asked, ‘How can
we help.’ Lyn said, ‘you could put on
an event for us.’ An event was born
to help Careity and to help four other
excellent charities as well.” The first
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