Firefighters, friends and other volunteers on the South Side came out on a cold Saturday to make the holidays a little brighter for families affected by cancer.
When the Bracken family was struggling to handle their toddler Finley’s cancer diagnosis and raising her three older sisters, their friends and relatives rallied around them.
“We had a lot of help,” said Lacey Bracken. “The neighbors came together. A good friend started a Go Fund Me page. St. Cajetan (where their daughters attended school) watched out for our three other children,” Bracken said. “They did fundraisers.”
The holidays after Finley was diagnosed in the fall of 2019 were particularly hectic as she was undergoing chemotherapy and the parents were spending many nights at Lurie’s Children’s Hospital.
One day, her husband Dan’s father and brother showed up at their house in the Beverly neighborhood and started putting up their Christmas decorations without being asked.
It turned out to be a very meaningful gesture, “because it ended up being Finley’s last Christmas,” Bracken said. Their little girl died of neuroblastoma Sept. 11, 2020, just weeks before her 3rd birthday.
Appreciating the support they had received, the family started the Finley Forever Foundation.
Bracken said they wanted to pay it forward by other families dealing with cancer.
“We mostly help families financially,” Bracken said. “We donate money to help them pay their bills or do something special.”
But they also remembered how the Christmas decorations brought cheer to their home.
Lacey and Dan Bracken met when both were working as firefighters for the Frankfort Fire Department. Dan is now a firefighter paramedic for the Flossmoor Fire Department, so the couple has a lot of firefighter friends.
“We are all good at climbing ladders. We thought why don’t we decorate people’s houses,” Lacey said. “You never know when your last Christmas will be.”
It made sense to partner with other charitable groups doing similar work in the area. Last year, they decorated houses in Chicago only.
But this year, the Tom Hopkins Foundation, Christmas Without Cancer, Project Fire Buddies and the Finley Forever Foundation teamed up to form the Lights and Ladders Brigade. Together, over two days, they will have decorated 13 houses in Chicago, Frankfort, Manhattan, Orland Park, Lockport and New Lenox, including seven on Saturday.
Chris Grande, a firefighter in Mount Greenwood and a roofer on the side, was ready to do his part.
“We’ll just throw up a ladder, go on the roof and string the lights. It’s easy,” Grande said.
The Goins house was first on the schedule Saturday. Bob Goins’ wife, Maryellen. died of breast cancer in February, so this will be his and their three children’s first Christmas without her.
Last December, folks from Christmas Without Cancer came by with presents for the family, and visited again with Easter baskets in the spring.
“I think it’s great the organization still keeps up with us,” Goins said. “I can’t thank them enough.”
Kurt DeGroot, a member of the Oak Forest Fire Department, said firefighters from 34 different departments in Illinois and Indiana joined the effort.
“I’m here helping with the logistics,” said DeGroot, founder and CEO of Project Fire Buddies, which was established in 2019 to help families coping with pediatric critical illnesses.
People from all the churches and Catholic schools in the area support each other, said Rich Stack, Finley’s godfather.
“That’s why we live on the South Side. Police, firefighters, teachers, they are all here,” he said, gesturing to the volunteers.
A fire engine, an ambulance and eight firefighters from the Garden Homes Fire Department, the last volunteer fire department in Cook County, came to help, said fire Chief Scott Bluhm.
Many of the firefighters had not decorated their own homes yet for the holidays, although the Garden Homes fire station was already decked out for Christmas.
“I’m hearing about it,” on the homefront, Bluhm said.
The Lights and Ladders Brigade formed a caravan of fire and police vehicles with lights flashing, a truck pulling a trailer of ladders and three trolleys and a bus for other volunteers, which left from St. Cajetan Church, at 2445 W. 112th St. about 3 p.m.
Tommy Popp, eagerly awaited their arrival at his house in Mount Greenwood.
Tommy was 2 years old when he was diagnosed with liver cancer. He underwent a liver resection and chemotherapy, and is in remission as he turns 3, his mother, Emily Popp, said.
“In June we got our first set of scans and they are clear,” she said.
Some neighbors, like Kathy Mikaitis, had been notified in advance of the planned activities and came out to watch.
Mikaitis said she did not know the Popps well, but wanted to show her support for the family.
“We have eight wonderful grandkids that are healthy,” she said.
The brigade allocated 45 minutes per house.
The families whose homes would be trimmed were asked what kind of decorations they would prefer. For example, a family could say they prefer white or colored bulbs, whether they have a favorite Christmas theme or if there are some things they don’t like.
Maybe someone does not want an inflatable Santa Claus in their front yard, Lacey Bracken said.
She and a good friend have a plan for each house, with a picture showing where every decoration goes.
“We have a yard crew, a porch crew and a roof crew,” Bracken said.
The volunteers are instructed where to place each strand of lights, wreath, garland and illuminated figure. And another person checks to make sure the instructions were followed.
“We want to make sure decorations are not just being thrown up,” Bracken said.
“We check that the garland is fluffed, the bulbs are right,” Nikki Scanlan said. “We check the details and that everything is in the right position.”
After the holidays, volunteers can help take down the decorations, too, if the family requests, Bracken said.
Kimberly Fornek is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
