More than 20 years ago, Deborah Donahue-Keegan, then a teacher at Boston College High School, organized a team of students to take part in the Mother’s Day Peace Walk in Dorchester.
The walk supports the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute, a Boston-based organization offering support, counseling, and resources of all sorts to families of murder victims. Even after leaving BC High for a teaching job at Tufts, the walk continued its importance in Donahue-Keegan’s family.
“It is very much aligned with my values and my family’s ideals,” Donahue-Keegan.
The connection Donahue-Keegan, her husband, Kevin, and their children felt to the walk became even stronger when their oldest son, Andrew, was murdered in Atlanta in 2020.
“We had the final trial last October,” she said. “[The Institute] had so many resources to help families, guidelines for dealing with the court process… they have been a huge, huge support for us.”
Andrew was missing for five months. The first time Donahue-Keegan and her team walked as survivors was just a little over a month after investigators found Andrew’s body.
The team was the top survivor fundraising group that year, raising about $15,000, she said.
Donahue-Keegan’s team consists of her family, siblings, friends, and colleagues. Her family has roots in Belmont, dating back generations. Her parents also walk in support, she said.
Donahue-Keegan is not the only person from town who spends part of Mother’s Day in Dorchester. Belmont is well-represented at the Peace Walk. There are several teams organized by different groups, including the Unitarian Church and Belmont Against Racism.
According to Belmont resident Kathryn Bonfiglio, Belmont Against Racism walks in memory of Herman Taylor, a Belmont High School student, murdered near his home in Dorchester in 2006.
“The community was devastated,” Bonfiglio said.
The institute was founded by the family of Louis Brown, a 15-year-old Dorchester youth murdered in 1993. According to its website, Brown was an honors student who dreamed of going to college. He was walking to a Teens Against Gang Violence meeting when he was caught in a crossfire and killed.
Brown’s parents, Joseph and Clementine Chery, founded the institute the next year.
“She’s an amazing human being,” Bonfiglio said.
From 2007 through about 2015, dozens of Belmont residents would participate in the annual walk. The numbers have dwindled, but Bonfiglio still sees purpose.
“We walk to support the families,” she said. “And spread light to the losses around these incidents.”
When someone is the most public face of the crime, the victim is the most vulnerable. But there are other losses, she said. The perpetrator’s family suffers a loss, and the community suffers a loss.
Last year, members of the First Church Unitarian Universalist asked Courtney Morton if they could walk in memory of her fiance, Henry Tapia. Tapia was murdered in a road rage incident in Belmont in 2021.
Among the familiar faces: State Sen. William Brownsberger.
“I’m a big believer that the way we will reduce gun violence is through community-led peace interventions,” he said.
“The number of Belmont residents willing to contribute financially, or by going down and participating in this walk on Mother’s Day, is remarkable,” said Donahue-Keegan.
The Details
Registration for the walk begins at 7 a.m. There will be a program of speakers at 8 a.m. followed by the walk at 9 a.m.
It begins and ends at Town Field Park, 1520 Dorchester Ave., Dorchester.