Mother’s Day is a holiday that can evoke feelings ranging from deep gratitude to lonely pain. For mothers and other family and community members who have lost a loved one to homicide, the pain can be overwhelming and never-ending. Daring to enter into this state of despair, the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute in Dorchester reaches out to these families to bring healing and hope.
For 21 consecutive years, supporters from neighborhoods across Boston and beyond have joined—rain or shine—the Mother’s Day Walk for Peace, a fundraising event to benefit the institute. “In unity there is healing,” the Institute’s slogan proclaims. As in years past, a team of supporters from First Church in Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist joined thousands of other walkers who braved the wet, cold rain and wind this Mother’s Day along the 6.8-mile route from Town Field in Dorchester to City Hall Plaza.
First Church in Jamaica Plain Unitarian Universalist team at the midpoint of the Mother\'s Day Walk for Peace May 14, 2017.
Long before Mother’s Day, fundraising for the Walk began at First Church. Peace Institute founder Chaplain Clementina Chery, her daughter and grandson honored First Church members with their presence on Easter Sunday to share the hopeful message of the institute’s mission. This year, the First Church congregation raised more than $1,700 for the healing work of the Peace Institute.