But the numbers she is proudest of add up to one huge accomplishment — 320 miles walked by Patti and 500 miles by Noreen Moloney ’90 and more than $500,000 raised for breast cancer research.

Patti Fennessy Novy ’89, at left, and Noreen Moloney ’90, right, lead a team that has raised more than half a million dollars for breast cancer research.

The Alpha Sigma Chi sisters have led a team in the New York City Avon Breast Cancer Walk since 2004, the year after the disease claimed the life of Michele, the sister of Patti’s husband, David Novy ’89.

Little by little, their team — the Wellness Warriors — grew in numbers and fundraising prowess. At the October 2011 walk, they passed a landmark. Their eight-year team total is $582,824. They placed third for fundraising the last two years, out of more than 300 teams.

Patti and Noreen are proudest that their team, which numbers between 30 and 40 walkers each year, raised their money without any corporate sponsorships. They work all year to accomplish their goal, with fundraisers at a local bowling alley, a Super Bowl pool, a comedy show and a bartending night at a local establishment.

When walk weekend comes each fall, they join 4,000 other participants for a two-day 40-mile trek through New York City.

“We walk because we can,” says Patti. “A lot of people can’t.”

“A walk is easy compared to what a cancer patient has to go through,” says Noreen, whose mother is a breast cancer survivor. “It’s my way of giving back and helping others — just a chance to make a difference.”

The friends realize that finding the cure to one cancer is the key to curing all cancers. And having reached a half-million dollar milestone, Patti has another goal. “I don’t want to walk forever,” she says. “I would love it if I never had to do again, because that would mean we have a cure.”

They say a teacher’s reach extends into eternity, due to the many lives she touches.

For the late Carol Adams Nelson ’59 that adage holds true, not only because of the lives she impacted in her classroom career, but also the current and future SUNY Oswego students who will benefit from her generous bequest to the college.

When Carol announced in early 2000 that she was naming Oswego in her will, she told Oswego alumni magazine that one of her greatest delights was to meet her former third grade pupils and hear about their successes in life and contributions to their communities. Retired after 35 years of teaching at Blue Point Elementary School on Long Island, she said, “Time and again, I turned down other opportunities because I never wanted to leave the classroom. I felt that what I was doing was significant, that I was making a difference every day.”

Carol Adams Nelson '59

“She enjoyed life and she certainly enjoyed being a school marm,” said her husband of 30 years, Jim Nelson. “That was her first love.”

Her Legacy Lives On

Although she passed away several years ago, through her gift to the college in her will, Carol is still making a difference every day in the lives of Oswego students.

“Something that was always in her mind was that she would leave something to her college, such was her love for Oswego,” said Jim. He said his wife, who sang in Symphonic Choir and Swing Sixteen, had “a voice like an angel” and “the most beautiful smile in the world.”

Carol had a deep affection for Oswego and wanted to express it through her philanthropy. She recalled her “wonderful Oswego professors” and the impact they made on her life and career. The Alpha Sigma Chi sister remembered the Class of 1959 as a “close class.”

“I want to continue to have an interest in and influence upon the future of my alma mater,” Carol told Oswego magazine in 2000. Through her gift, this generous and loyal alumna will continue to influence and strengthen the college’s future, while benefiting the lives of Oswego students for generations to come.

— Michele Reed