Painting made by Priscilla Robinson

BCRC Main Office

Given to the BCRC in loving memory of Linda Acosta from the Linda P. Acosta Foundation. Some people come into our lives and quietly go. Others stay for a while and leave footprints on our hearts and we are never the same. Linda was a wife, mother, daughter and friend. She was born October 1, 1963, and passed away from breast cancer August 17, 1998. Painting made by Priscilla Robinson

BCRC Round Rock

Kristin Berry’s 8th grade art class at Grisham Middle School created this mural for the BCRC office in Round Rock. The students first nominated various non-profit service organizations, then voted to determine which organization would be the beneficiary of their creative talents. The result is a beautiful 8′ x 4′ mural. Two of the students in this class had mothers who had been diagnosed with breast cancer, which made this a very personal and meaningful project for the students.

BCRC North Austin Medical Center

"Count It Joy" a special Commission for Breast Cancer Resource Centers of Texas, created by Rhonda Dore

Once, in the midst of a diagnostic scare, I was about to undergo a stereotactic needle biopsy. (I knew it involved a needle – a “large core” one at that.) On my way down the long hallway, a woman accompanied me. I had never seen her before in my life. She introduced herself and said, “I’m here to be with you.” She stayed with me, talked to me, held my hand through the entire thing (which I’m astonished to report didn’t hurt at all). The pain was not in my body, it was in my heart and mind. Her reassuring presence was a kindness I will never forget. She was a staff member from The Breast Cancer Resource Centers of Texas, and she had been through this same procedure herself. I had no idea this organization existed until she arrived in that hallway. Imagine. Someone who appears at your scariest moment and enfolds you in reassuring comfort. Like an angel dispatched from heaven. That is who these people are.

Another miracle: years later I get an email out of the blue from the BCRC. They wanted to hire me to create a special painting to share with their clients and doctors who were especially important to them. My surgeon, Dr. Kelly Martinez, had recommended me. Here was my chance to transform the bits and pieces of diagnostic ’stuff’ that scares me into something with a far better purpose. Thank you, Kelly. Thank you, Alice Wilson, Vivian Smith, Barbara Formicelli, Carol Willingham and all the women of the BCRC, for giving me one of the most rewarding, demon-exorcising experiences of my artistic life.

-Rhonda Dore