Each year the Breast Cancer 2K Walk/Run is organized in honor of Billie Jean Jackson, it always begins in grand fashion.
A drum line from 34th Avenue Elementary brings the rhythm and dancers bring the moves. Divine Dancers of the Delta add to the groove, put their boots (or dancing shoes) on the ground and wave the fans. Vendors hand out information about breast cancer treatment and sell homemade desserts, among other things.
Saturday morning’s event at Lake Saracen was the 11th annual rendition, and it was hard to miss the throng of vehicles lining the lakeside.
Michelle Jackson Atkinson, Billie Jean’s daughter, co-organizes the event with Samuel L. Walker II.
“This is all the dream Michelle initially had,” Walker said. “With guidance and structure from where she was to where she is now, it has kind of provided the vision she had, and she has even greater vision.”
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The vision, Atkinson said, came from the passing of her mother to breast cancer in 2000. Billie Jean Jackson, commonly known as B.J., was the founder of Christian Way Funeral Home in Pine Bluff. Atkinson said she also saw how the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation organizes events such as its Race for the Cure to spread awareness of the disease.
“I saw how they organized their event, and I said, ‘You know what? We need something of this magnitude in Pine Bluff,'” Atkinson said. “We started this 11 years ago in honor of my mom and to celebrate my mom, and to celebrate those either still in the fight or in remission.”
The event drew 18 vendors, one of which — a lemonade business, Crown Sweetie LLC — was operated by 10-year-old Kensley “Noodle” Hampton, Atkinson’s niece.
