Love leads to festival booth

By Barry Porterfield
Staff Writer

April 23, 2008 12:13 pm

— The love for her sister has one Pauls Valley woman working hard these days to raise money to help while also bringing more awareness to the issue of breast cancer.
Jolynn Brandt of Pauls Valley is hoping to help her sister, 58-year-old Belinda Parsharll of Byars, who is facing a scary and uncertain battle with breast cancer.
As it stands now Parsharll is looking at several weeks of radiation treatments with naturally no “guarantees of anything.”
Making matters even worse as Parsharll also has Multiple Sclerosis.
One of the things Brandt has in mind is a booth of her own at the return of Brickfest on May 3 in downtown PV.
There are a couple of reasons for the booth with her sister being at the top of the list.
“My main reason for this is to raise money for my sister,” Brandt said.
“What people don’t realize is when you get a cancer life doesn’t stop around you. Your bills keep coming in, you still got to eat, you have to take care of all your responsibilities. When you’re alone you’re not able to do that,” she said.
“My booth is to help my sister through the next few months.”
When the day for the Brickfest event does roll around Brandt will be raising funds by selling hot dogs and home-made burritos at her booth.
Yet another reason for festival appearance is to offer a larger health reminder to all of us on the overall breast cancer issue itself.
Information on the issue, including the need for regular mammogram exams, will be offered at Brandt’s booth thanks to literature provided by the American Cancer Association.
“I also want to bring awareness to everyone that’s there about what breast cancer can do to you. Information will be there because it’s very important,” she said.
“I’ve lost both my folks to cancer and I don’t want to lose my sister.”
The ways to help don’t stop there as Brandt has a couple of others ready to go.
Already set up is a fund at the local IBC Bank that will accept donations from anyone on Belinda’s behalf.
Then there’s a garage sale this weekend.
With all proceeds going to her sister, the fundraiser by Brandt at 441 Mohawk is scheduled to get underway at 8 a.m. Saturday.
As far as the Brickfest booth is concerned, Brandt is also hoping Belinda will get the chance to actually be there, even if it’s only for a little bit.
“She’s going to try and make it to my booth but we don’t know about that yet,” Brandt added.