Walker Beery could find joy in dreary places. After he was diagnosed with pediatric brain cancer at age 7, in July 2019, the pint-sized New Orleanian battled two years of grueling treatment with courage and a smile.
With boundless energy and a remarkable sense of compassion, Walker danced in therapy rooms, wore costumes to radiation sessions and finally launched Kids Join the Fight — a charity empowering children to help other children afflicted by cancer.
“I want people who have cancer to not go through the same thing I went through,” a precocious Walker explains in a video created by his family.
Walker died of his illness on Sept. 5. He was 9 years old.
There was one instance in particular that served as the catalyst for Kids Join The Fight. Walker was being treated in Houston when a girl stopped by his hospital room and gave him a teddy bear. The kind gesture made his “nose burn.”
“What that means … I was so happy, I was about to happy cry,” he said. “And when that girl got out of my room, I cried for a long time.”
When Walker, a fourth-grader at Trinity Episcopal School, returned to New Orleans, he and his younger sister Evelyn announced they wanted to raise money for other kids and families fighting cancer, said Taylor Beery, the children's father.
So they set up a lemonade stand and alerted social media. By the next afternoon, they had earned more than $3,000.
Taylor Beery wears yellow – his son Walker’s favorite color – while honoring Walker at the Louisiana Children’s Museum in mid-September. The charity the child started before his death raised more than $1 million this year.
“And then he had the bug,” Taylor Beery said. “Walker was generally impatient by nature and started repeatedly asking me, ‘When are we going to do more?’ Despite the fact that he was in very aggressive treatment for his own disease.”
Walker had a “perpetual case of the wiggles” and refused to wait, his dad said.
“‘Let's get after it!’ is what Walker would always say,” Beery said. “So we called a friend who was an event planner, and the next thing we knew, his foundation had launched.”
After relapsing and undergoing a series of unsuccessful clinical treatment trials, Walker succumbed to cancer. His legacy, however, lives through Kids Join The Fight — now a nationwide movement.
Walker loved sports, parties, Pokémon and dancing , said his father. He wore superhero capes. He was Evelyn’s best friend. (Taylor Beery and his wife Angel also have a third child, McLain, who is the youngest.)
Adults and kids dressed in yellow – Walker’s favorite color – honor Walker at the Louisiana Children’s Museum in mid-September. The charity the child started before his death raised more than $1 million this year.
Although he was terrified of needles when he began his treatment, Walker strolled into appointments with confidence, ready for his shots. He relearned how to swallow, stand, walk and ride his bike, proudly surprising his dad with that skill on Father’s Day 2020, a year after his diagnosis.
The Kids Join the Fight website says the money kids raise will help pay for global research for pediatric cancer and provide local support services and care for pediatric cancer patients and their families.
And it aims to do so "while teaching the next generation of fundraisers the feeling of gratitude associated with giving back to their communities,” the site says.
Children can get involved by hosting a bake sale, raking leaves, staging a play for the neighborhood, walking dogs or washing cars. (Visit kidsjointhefight.org for ideas.)
“We're targeting raising a million dollars this year,” Beery said. “We're almost halfway there.”
A 50-state challenge is underway, since September is pediatric cancer awareness month. The foundation plans to host fundraising events in all 50 states, in 30 days.
“Foundations, corporations and individuals are backing it,” said Beery. “But the main people who are leading this fight are the children. Parents are working with their children to use this as an opportunity for the children to learn about empathy and philanthropy, but also for the children to channel their creative energy, to come up with unique ideas to raise money.”
Beery hopes the initiative highlights the lack of funding and overall understanding of pediatric cancer.
The National Pediatric Cancer Association notes that in the United States alone, 43 kids are diagnosed with cancer each day.
In fact, cancer is the No. 1 cause of death by disease among children. And more than 95% of the survivors suffer from health issues associated with archaic treatment. But still, only 4% of federal cancer research funding benefits pediatric cancer treatment.
“The same treatments that would have been available if Walker had been diagnosed with cancer in 1991 are the treatments he was offered in 2021,” Beery said. “That's because there's not enough funding; there's too much bureaucracy and too little awareness of all of these problems. So this became his mission and now it's our mission.”
Toward the end of his life, Walker loved driving around the city with his family, spotting blue and yellow “Kids Join The Fight” door-hangers and witnessing friends and family support his foundation through spirited fundraisers.
“You can do really anything to raise money for cancer, anything in the world. You just have to do something,” Walker says in the video. “Get after it!”
Suzanne Pfefferle Tafur can be reached at suzpfefferle@gmail.com.
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