OSWEGO – Four years ago this month, the City of Oswego started an annual tradition of honoring the late Mary Gosek, as Mayor Billy Barlow declared each and every July 30, starting in 2018, to be Mary E. Gosek Day, her birthday. Now, the non-profit she founded, Peaceful Remedies, will host its second annual Miles for Mary challenge to raise awareness for the organization.
Miles for Mary started in July 2020 to raise awareness and funding for Peaceful Remedies during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time in which it was hard to bring people together.
“It just started with COVID and people [doing] things on their own because you couldn’t get together in groups,” Mary’s husband Ed Gosek said. “It started because, one, to help with fundraising but two just to raise awareness for Peaceful Remedies, ovarian cancer and people affected by other diseases too … It’s not all about raising money, but it’s about raising awareness.”
Ovarian cancer is one of the most deadly forms of cancer, according to Dr. Raj Mahajan, an OBGYN in Oswego. Its symptoms are “mild and nonspecific” such as bloating, a full feeling, and pressure, making overall awareness and education so vital.
“The biggest thing is to see a doctor regularly so they can check and listen to [you]. People don’t get symptoms early, they just don’t, which is why prevention is really a big deal,” Mahajan said. “People who are high risk for ovarian cancer, they talk about seeing [doctors] twice a year and doing pelvic exams … For those people, you want to do very close surveillance. For people with normal risk … seeing a doctor once per year would help pick it up.”
The “virtual challenge” as the Peaceful Remedies website describes it is a month-long event where community members log their miles and “challenge [their] friends” in order to see who can walk, bike, run or swim the most. People are free to participate but donations are appreciated for the non-profit that offers free services to people impacted by life altering illnesses.
These programs include massages, circle talks, meditation, yoga and counseling. Peaceful Remedies was founded in 2015 when Mary was sick with ovarian cancer, according to Gosek.
“Once she was sick, she realized the need in the community [for] a collecting point for resources for people that have been diagnosed with life altering diseases,” Gosek said. “It’s for everything [that] has a major impact on their lives and their caregiver’s lives, and that’s really what Peaceful Remedies is there to do. It certainly wasn’t to replace medical medicine as we know it. It was just meant to be a supplement for the mental and physical well-being of people who are going through hard times.”
Since Mary’s passing in 2016, Gosek commended the volunteers continuing to work on her vision and the leadership group consisting of President Kim Simmonds, Mary’s sister, Donna Handley and Secretary Alyson Inman.
Despite a new venture last year, Miles for Mary was a great success with “really good” participation, according to Gosek. He added that it went beyond the hockey teams at Oswego State, where he is the men’s ice hockey coach, including the City of Oswego, Oswego State alumni, family members and even the racing community that his brother, Joe, is a part of. More specifically, the inaugural month saw 131 participants spanning across 10 states and one province, along with 2,432 miles that were covered to honor Mary and her Peaceful Remedies.
To join the event, community members must sign up on the Peaceful Remedies website and provide basic information including an email address, name and birthdate. Peaceful Remedies will also host the first annual Mary Gosek Golf Tournament on September 12.
With these events and more able to help those in need, Gosek knows in his heart how happy Mary would be to see her dream continue.
“It’s an awesome cause. I know Mary would be ecstatic with how much it has grown and how many people they have helped,” Gosek said. “Noone is paid in organization, and to think that these people day in and day out donate their time whether it’s through yoga or meditation or any of these other things that they offer … It has been amazing.”
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