Lula Knouse was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007 at the age of 38. It was her first year participating in Making Strides Against Breast Cancer. Her husband’s coworkers at TDS Telecommunications organized a team called Lula’s Walkers, and they raised $1,900.
The following year, Lula took over the team, changing the name to Lula’s Peeps. A fitting name for a lady who was all about the people around her. She was the first to ask how you were doing. It was never about her or the cancer. You only had to meet Lula once to feel like she was your friend and you were one of her peeps.
Throughout the next five years, Lula continued to battle cancer. She underwent two mastectomies, radiation, and chemotherapy. In 2011, the cancer spread to her bones and she remained on chemotherapy for the rest of her too-short life, and in the end participated in a clinical trial at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
The 2011 Making Strides walk would be Lula’s last. Despite feeling the side effects of her treatments and the toll that battling this disease was taking on her body, Lula was determined to walk the entire five miles.
Surrounded by her peeps, her co-workers at the Red Blazer, her family, her husband and her children Emily and TJ, Lula set out on the route. She set out to show cancer it wasn’t beating her – not that day.
During the walk Lula listened to an iPod, playing “Eye of the Tiger” over and over again. The theme song from Rocky III, a fitting survivor anthem for a woman who was facing cancer for the third time. Lula did walk the entire 5 miles, one of the last few participants across the finish line but not the last; she would have wanted you to know that. Lula’s sister, Joyce Cotnoir, was not surprised that Lula insisted on walking the entire route. “She lived her life to the fullest; she never simply went through the motions,” Cotnoir said.
Throughout the walk, her husband Travis phoned back to the field to give Lula’s friend Tamra Burke and Lula’s Red Blazer family updates on Lula’s progress. He let them know she was hurting, but they were approaching the finish line. Tamra borrowed one of the donated pink golf carts and zoomed over to the finish line to pick Lula up. They drove over to the Garden of Hope, a permanent garden planted in the shape of a ribbon dedicated to all those lives touched by breast cancer. The garden is lined with granite pavers engraved with the names of corporate sponsors and pacesetter teams. Pacesetter teams raise $15,000 or more.
Lula remarked to Tamra, “I think I need to have one of those bricks with my name on it, don’t you?” To that Tamra remarked “Yes, yes you do, Lula!” not knowing that she was going to need to make that happen for Lula – without Lula.
When members of the Concord Volunteer Planning committee stopped into the Red Blazer the day after last year’s walk to celebrate the record-breaking $568,000 raised, they were surprised to see Lula working. They probably shouldn’t have been, as Lula continued to work at the Blazer throughout her cancer treatments. Lula came over to the table to congratulate them and tell them she had decided to start raising money that day for the 2012 walk. She looked them in the eye and said,“We need to hurry.”
The planning committee turned that into their mantra for the planning of the 2012 event. We need to work harder and faster for Lula and all those lives touched by breast cancer.
Whenever the committee needed a little inspiration, they would simply turn to each other and say “harder and faster.” The mantra would soon turn bittersweet, as it would not be fast enough. They find comfort in knowing that Lula believed in what they are doing and what they are doing matters.
Lula lost her battle with breast cancer in June. In true Lula style, Lula had requested that everyone wear a “pop of color” to the celebration of her life. And because Lula was definitely a pop of color in their lives, they did. Wearing their pops of color and their Lula’s Peeps pink wristbands, they wept. Lula had threaten many of them in the past if they cried around her she would kick them off the Lula’s Peeps team, but they couldn’t stop the tears, because the world was just a little dimmer without Lula in it.
As plans got under way for the 20th Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in October, teams formed and the fundraising was underway. And you better believe Lula’s Peeps were going to be there. Lula’s big brother Harry Charcalis assumed the role of team captain and, with Tamra Burke by his side as co-captain, they set out to make Lula’s Peeps a pacesetter team. There would be a granite paver in the Garden of Hope engraved with “Lula’s Peeps”; there was no doubt about it.
In 2011, The Red Blazer closed the restaurant on St. Patrick’s Day to host a fundraiser for Lula. Cost of admission: $10 for a Lula’s Peeps bracelet. From breakfast to the wee hours of the next day, the Blazer was packed. Lula couldn’t understand why all these people were there for her but her family wasn’t surprised.
“Lula attracted people wherever we went, people were just drawn to her,” her sister Joyce Cotnoir said.
Tamra Burke recalls being at the beach with Lula. “Lula struck up a conversation with this lady who was walking on the beach, the next thing you know I’m taking a picture of the two of them arm in arm.”
That was Lula, she genuinely loved people.
Now it was time for the Red Blazer to once again open their doors and for the community to open their wallets to make Lula’s wish come true. Price of admission, you guessed it – a Lula’s Peeps bracelet.
There are over 2,000 bracelets in existence; many of Lula’s family and friends never take theirs off. The Blazer was again packed. In the crowd you could find many team members from other Making Strides teams who took time out from their own fundraising to come out and show their support. On that day, everyone was a Lula’s Peep.
On Sept. 19, the Red Blazer website said it all, “Mission Accomplished!”
In an open letter, Red Blazer owner Sarandis Karathanais wrote: “In the Red Blazer’s 13 year history, we have never seen such capacity overflow crowds like we did when we asked for a show of support during Lula’s most important fight of her life.
Like the champion she was, Lula fought a fight and continued to fight all the way to the bitter end and not once complained or veered from believing she would win her battle with that horrible enemy called cancer.
Far too many others are fighting the same fight. Our work to defeat this enemy is not done. The goal and Lula’s wish has been achieved, and by the looks of it, Lula’s Peeps will more than likely take a top spot at this year’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walk Fundraiser.
Knowing Lula,(while looking down on us with one of her memorable smiles) she’ll be pulling some strings from above still fighting for the cause she most ardently believed in.
I can hear her now: “Are you kidding me? You guys are crazy! ”
Lula’s team isn’t stopping at $15,000; they are continuing to fundraise and will be walking 99 peeps strong at this year’s event. Concord’s Survivor Way is also being sponsored in Lula’s memory this year.
The anonymous donors decided to sponsor “Survivor Way” because Lula was a true survivor every day. She refused to believe cancer was going to beat her. That doesn’t mean she was in denial – she simply refused to give up hope. She loved her life and lived it every day.
Lula once said that “Making Strides definitely lights my fire.” Lula’s Peeps are keeping that fire lit.
