Beth Baldwin is never more in demand than when she parks her car in any parking lot around central New York.

Written across the side of her black Jeep Laredo in bold, pink letters is one phrase that automatically makes the car recognizable to everyone who sees it.

“Fight like a girl.”

It serves as a rallying cry for those affected by breast cancer, drawing people to the car and the woman inside. Women often come up to her, many of them in tears. They’ve found a lump. Their doctor can’t get them into an oncologist for months. They don’t know what to do.

And just like that, Baldwin swings into action, calling the doctors at SUNY Upstate Medical University to get the person in the next day. She’ll go with the woman to her chemo treatments. She comforts their families. She’s there till the end, which too often can mean a funeral.

As executive director of the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund of CNY, Baldwin is constantly on the go, planning fundraisers that have helped the organization raise more than $2 million since its founding in 2001. She sends her daughter Jacqueline Baldwin, associate director at the foundation, work-related text messages at 2 a.m. And then again at 3 and 4 a.m.

“This is the whole process of, we get to know these people who my mom met in the parking lot of Wegmans,” Jacqueline Baldwin said. “She can’t escape from anywhere — everybody knows where she is.”

October is breast cancer awareness month, which is an especially busy time for the fund and the women who run it. On Sunday, the fund held its annual “A Run for Their Life” event, a 5K and 15K run that starts at Manley Field House.

The run usually raises more than $100,000 for the charity, with much of the money going to SUNY-Upstate, which helped inspire its creation.

Carol Baldwin, Beth’s mother, founded the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund, Inc. in 1996 after she was diagnosed with and beat breast cancer in 1990. When SUNY Upstate approached her a few years later about helping support local breast cancer research, she helped start a central New York affiliate of the main fund.

While Baldwin’s actor brothers, Alec, Daniel, Billy and Stephen, may be more recognizable on a national scale, the foundation and the women who run it have made lasting impressions on the central New York region since the organization was founded 13 years ago. In keeping with its local ties, every dollar the foundation raises stays in central New York, where it supports research aimed at achieving the organization’s ultimate goal: finding a cure for breast cancer.

Much of the research the fund supports takes place at SUNY-Upstate, which had one of the largest groups of participants at Sunday’s run. The group from Upstate represented some of the roughly 800 people who participated in the 5K and 15K, decked out in bright pink from head to toe. They pinned the names of the people they were running for on their shirts and donned pink ponchos and sweatshirts as the rain continued to pour.

Besides the run, the fund also holds an annual gala in May to recognize sponsors, researchers and volunteers. They also allow women who have survived breast cancer to share their stories. Other events throughout the year include a bike ride, a tennis tournament and a golf tournament.

Karin Laskowski has been volunteering with the CNY fund since its founding. She went to school with Jacqueline Baldwin and her sisters, and spent Sunday helping man the registration tent for the run. It’s her favorite event of the year.

“I just really like meeting everyone,” she said as she passed out registration packets. “I like seeing everyone run across the finish line and everyone cheers.”

Devin Butler, who volunteered at the race, also has a personal connection to the Baldwin family. The Baldwins are her neighbors and when her mother-in-law was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011, the Baldwins helped them through the process.

Carol sent pink breast cancer blankets and Beth made time to sit and comfort the family. Butler’s mother-in-law lost her battle with breast cancer four months after being diagnosed, but Butler and her family have continued to volunteer with the fund. Butler is now a member of the fund’s auxiliary board and next year, the fund will name a grant after her mother-in-law.

Research grants like the one named after Butler’s mother-in-law help achieve the fund’s mission of finding a cure for breast cancer by supporting researchers as they investigate the causes, treatment and prevention of breast cancer.

And all that money and research stays in central New York, helping provide the same sense of hope people have when they see Baldwin in her “Fight like a girl” Jeep.

“To be able to have that right here in central New York and to raise that money and to keep it here is just such an amazing thing,” Jacqueline Baldwin said.

Published on October 28, 2014 at 12:01 am

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