When Anita DiGregory was diagnosed with breast cancer in February, she knew that as she battled the disease, she would have plenty of support from her family – her husband, Gus, and their children, Ben, 9, and Katie, 4.

What DiGregory didn’t expect is that she would also have the support of her neighbors.

But this week, 43 of the 85 residents of the Westchester Lakes addition in Aboite Township will tie pink ribbon bows to their trees, mailboxes and lamp posts to encourage DiGregory. The Vera Bradley Foundation for Breast Cancer’s Turn the Town Pink fundraising campaign is stretching its trademark symbol beyond downtown Fort Wayne.

“The support from this neighborhood has been amazing,” DiGregory, 46, said Thursday after returning from a chemotherapy treatment. “I’ve seen it time and time again, and it’s gratifying when it’s directed at you.”

Turn the Town Pink volunteer Sue Miller, who spearheaded the idea of enlisting neighborhood groups to buy and hang ribbons, says Westchester Lakes isn’t the only neighborhood participating. The yards of about 30 percent of residents in Sycamore Hills and 40 percent of residents of Heron’s Preserve also will sport pink ribbons soon. Many neighbors sprang for more than a single kit of five for $25.

“We’ve just had an overwhelming response. We exceeded our estimates, that’s for sure,” says Miller, adding she hopes neighborhood ribbons will go citywide next year. As of last week, ribbon sales had reached $6,000.

Miller, 47, a 22-year breast cancer survivor, attributes the Westchester Lakes’ response to the fact that DiGregory is not the only resident of the addition undergoing breast cancer treatment.

So is Kimberly Martinez, 40, a mother of two daughters, Lauren, 14, and Emily, 12, and a son Daniel, 5. Martinez is married to Fort Wayne pulmonologist Dr. Manuel Martinez.

Kimberly Martinez was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive type of breast cancer in 2009, just 10 months after her mother, Shirley Ziol of Cleveland, died at 67 after the same type spread to her brain, lungs and liver.

Martinez, a nurse, has undergone a double mastectomy and just completed 16 rounds of chemotherapy.

“I don’t have family here, and that’s where my wonderful neighbors came into play,” Martinez says. “One started doing all the meals, another was my driver to chemotherapy and another took care of my 5-year-old and got him back and forth to school on those days I had chemo.”

Having so many neighbors buy ribbons has been the icing on the cake, Martinez said.

“They’re not just neighbors. They’re family,” she said.

Bigger each year

Catherine Hill, Vera Bradley Foundation executive director, says organizers have been trying to broaden their donor base ever since the fundraiser began in 1994 as a benefit golf tournament for women. Back then, supporters tied a few pink ribbons on country club trees.

The first pink ribbons downtown appeared outside businesses in the early 2000s, and three years ago, the first “pink pathways” appeared as volunteers tied commemorative bows on downtown street trees, says Ruth Cook, organizing committee member.

This year, about 1,000 pink ribbon bows were placed on trees in Headwaters Park, One Summit Square and surrounding areas May 14 to kick off 2010’s Turn the Town Pink, Cook says.

Organizers cannot supply more ribbon kits to neighborhood groups this year, Miller said. But the foundation is starting a list for next year.

Hill says the foundation has pursued an aggressive goal despite the recession.

“We hope to raise at least as much as last year, and that was about $50,000 from Turn the Town Pink (ribbons),” Hill said. “That’s pretty impressive for $5 at a time (the price of a single bow).”

The foundation in 2009 donated more than $782,952 for breast cancer research, completing its first $10 million pledge to Indiana University’s Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center in Indianapolis.

That’s where DiGregory consulted experts when local doctors were unsure how to treat her because she had two separate tumors in the same breast. She has had a partial mastectomy and will face 14 months of chemotherapy, and probably radiation treatments after that. But she feels hopeful.

“It’s a very scary diagnosis at first, but once you start down the road and talk to other people involved with it, the more it becomes a battle that you can win, depending, of course, on the stage it’s in and if it has spread beyond the breast,” DiGregory says.

“You hear the word ‘cancer’ and you immediately think, ‘I’m dying.’ But we’ve really learned that’s not the case. There are things out there to help,” she continues.

“There are lots of things that can be done now, and that’s all because people donate, and companies contribute. The donation dollars – that’s the thing that’s saving us.”

rsalter@jg.net