Where it started.

The first one was a flyer with a mission statement typed across the top and a photograph of fireworks over water. October 8, 2011: a Pink Mass at St. Michael’s Cathedral at four in the afternoon, then everybody down to the Elks Lodge on Tiffany Street at six for a homemade pasta dinner, a DJ, vendors, prizes and a cash bar. Twenty dollars for adults, five for children twelve and under.

The Mass was celebrated by Reverend Giuseppe Maria Siniscalchi, C.F.R., a Springfield native. Fifteen years later he is the celebrant of the 2026 Healing Mass, which is the kind of coincidence that is not really a coincidence at all.

The proceeds were split five ways, among the American Cancer Society, Cancer House of Hope, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Rays of Hope and the Sisters of Providence Mercy Care Center. The save-the-date card put the reason plainly: to benefit local cancer support agencies. That sentence has not changed since.