Why We Walk
The Mother’s Day Walk for Peace is the principal fundraiser for the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute (LDBPI), a major force for peace and healing. Its founder, President and CEO Chaplain Clementina Chéry, is a dynamic, resolute, and loving woman who has built an outstanding organization through her many years of leadership.
Imagine the Unimaginable
Your beloved teenage child has just been murdered. The police want to talk with you. The press wants to talk with you. You have to arrange and pay for a funeral. There are no services for you as the parent of a murdered child, especially before they are recognized as a “good” kid. Your faith, family, and friends offer sustenance and love, which helps, but basically your world has caved in.
In 1993 in Boston, a version of this was reality for Chéry when her 15-year-old son Louis was caught in gang crossfire while on his way to a Teens Against Gang Violence meeting. A year later, she honored him by founding LDBPI as a center of healing, teaching, and learning. Chéry organized the Mother’s Day Peace Walk in 1996 as she struggled to both grieve the loss of her son and celebrate her living children on Mother’s Day. She chose to organize the Walk in Dorchester, the Boston neighborhood where Louis was killed.
Turning Grief into Healing
As word spread, grieving mothers, their children, and entire families came forward — step by step — in a shared remembrance of their loved ones. Others were moved to join them in support. Thirty years later, the walk has become one of the largest organized walks in New England and a signature event in Boston.
Funds raised from the walk support families of homicide victims through LDBPI programs and services, which include immediate and long-term care for survivors, youth and multigenerational arts and education programming, advocacy for survivor-centered policies, and reentry support for formerly incarcerated people, as well as operational costs, staffing, and overhead.
Bonus: Meet Tina!Jim and Margery of Boston Public Radio had Tina Chéry as their guest on May 4. Start listening at minute1.24.52 to learn more about what inspires this self-described “poor immigrant” then and now, and the purpose and achievements of the Peace Institute since the first walk 30 years ago. |
Where, When, How to Join the Follen Team
The walk starts and ends at Town Field Park, 1565 Dorchester Ave., Dorchester. A program sure to feature Chéry herself and several of your favorite politicians begins at 8:00 AM, and the walk itself steps out at 9:00 AM. The 3.2-mile route takes 1 to 1.25 hours to complete, leaving plenty of time in walkers’ days to either be celebrated themselves or to celebrate those who have provided them mothering.
Most walkers are part of a team, whether as friend or family of a murder victim, a faith community (there are several other UU congregations), a peace organization, health provider, or other group. You can support Team Follen as a walker and/or by making a donation. Registering will trigger creation of a fundraising page in your name that you can personalize and send to others.
Getting There
Follen’s Racial and Economic Justice Group (REJG) is promoting Follen’s participation in the walk. If there is enough interest, we will organize carpools! Email us at rejgroup@follen.org if you want to be a passenger or a driver. If you plan to drive, this LDBPI page has helpful information about parking and public transit.
Your donation in any amount empowers survivors, builds Generation Peace, and heals communities impacted by murder, trauma, grief, and loss. Even if you can’t walk with us this year, together we can transform society’s response to homicide and support peace for children everywhere.
