NEWBURYPORT — Hundreds of lanterns lit up the Bartlet Mall’s Frog Pond on Saturday night as the community came together for the 16th annual Lantern Festival to raise money for Greater Newburyport Ovarian Cancer Awareness.
“It’s just such a touching, beautiful event,” Greater Newburyport Ovarian Cancer Awareness volunteer Margaret Mahoney said.
Greater Newburyport Ovarian Cancer Awareness is a volunteer group with a mission to increase awareness of the symptoms of ovarian cancer through education and by sponsoring local events, providing support services for women with ovarian cancer, improving women’s lives by increasing recovery and survival rates, and funding ovarian cancer research.
People began arriving about 6:30 p.m. to begin decorating their lanterns.
“We had I would say about 400 (people),” volunteer Debra Green said.
Mahoney said they had live music from local musicians as well as a poetry read while folks were busy decorating the lanterns they obtained with a $10 donation.
“Then we launched the lanterns into the water at the Frog Pond at the Bartlet Mall,” Mahoney said.
In addition to lantern donations, the event was funded by grants from the Cultural Councils of West Newbury, Newburyport, Salisbury, and Newbury, as well as donations from the Institution for Savings and Anna Jaques Hospital.
Green said they netted roughly $4,000 with a final tally yet to come.
One thing Mahoney said she loves about the event is walking around, talking with people, and learning what their lanterns mean to them.
“Everybody has their own purpose and their own reason, I think,” Mahoney said. “For many, it’s remembering a lost loved one. But, one woman I ran into the other night who’s from another country, which is at war, she just had words all over hers. And she was thinking about her mother who’s back at her home country, and she was putting out wishes for peace and safety and tranquility, and things like that.”
Green gave her own example.
“I did one for a friend that turned 80 wishing her a happy birthday,” Green said.
They stressed that the event is for everyone.
“We don’t want people to think, ‘Oh, I don’t have a connection to ovarian cancer. I’m not going to this,’” Mahoney said. “It’s for everybody. That happens to be our group, but the event is for everyone who has a desire to participate in it. You really do get a sense of community connection.”
Green offered a special thanks to the Link House in Amesbury for its continued help setting up the event each year.
“They’re pretty essential in helping us get this going because we’re all volunteers, and they’ve helped us for years,” Green said.
The Amesbury-based Link House is a nonprofit organization that offers residential treatment, sober living housing, and outpatient behavioral health services for people recovering from substance use disorders.
This event is one of two major fundraisers for Greater Newburyport Ovarian Cancer Awareness. The next event, a 5K walk/run, is set for September, which is National Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month.
Matt Petry covers Amesbury and Salisbury for The Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: mpetry@northofboston.com.