Stake the Lake returns to honor cancer warriors

Sue Passinault is happily multitasking.

Passinault, while caring for her 101-year-old mother, is, once again, working around the clock with her husband, David, to assemble and hand-paint personalized stakes and crosses for the annual Stake the Lake event this month that honors Alger County’s many cancer survivors and those who lost their lives to the disease while raising money for the Eric R. Beverly Family Foundation.

“I’ve been volunteering with them for 17 years,” said Passinault, a lifelong Munising resident. Her involvement began after attending a fundraising luncheon held by Munising native and four-time cancer survivor Danielle Beverly. 

“My husband’s sister died of Hodgkin’s lymphoma at 12 years old,” she said. “So anytime there was anything to do with cancer awareness, we were always right there.”

In addition to collecting funds, supplies, sponsors and names, each August and September Sue and David hunker down and make each cross by hand, sanding wood and painting each name in the respective cancer awareness color. 

They also place each and every cross and stake along the road ahead of the event. Passinault even creates a list of each stake’s location so survivors and loved ones know exactly where to find their name.

As with previous years, the event looks to raise funds for the Eric R. Beverly Family Foundation, which supports individuals and families with the costs of a cancer diagnosis — be it treatment specific, transportation needs, housing, groceries or utility bills.

Founded in 2006 by Danielle Beverly, the foundation was initially created after Danielle received her first of four cancer diagnoses in hopes of helping those with breast cancer in Atlanta, where she lived with her husband, Eric, a professional football player.

Around the same time, they expanded efforts to include Alger County, as well as all cancers, for those many people who may be facing financial barriers in receiving treatment and maintaining the normalcy of daily life. 

Last year’s walk smashed previous donation records and brought in $46,428 for the foundation, which will directly help those Alger County residents in need of support.

“When I went through my [first] diagnosis, the community was so supportive,” Beverly said of Munising and her breast cancer diagnosis at 29 years old. She acknowledges the privilege of having access to resources and being able to travel to see renowned specialists, thanks in part to her husband’s then-employer, the National Football League, adding she was even able to purchase a hyperbaric chamber.

“We didn’t have to second-guess how we might cover bills or if we were going to go see a doctor somewhere,” she said. 

The gift of not having to worry about anything beyond getting better is what has helped drive Beverly’s commitment to giving back. 

“Growing up in Alger County,” she said, “I look back at that time in the early 2000s when we had The Munising News and they would host spaghetti dinners or chili feeds to help residents offset the costs of their cancer diagnosis.” 

And then Beverly got hit with a second cancer diagnosis — a wake-up call, she said.

“We were like, there’s a reason this is happening and it’s a little bit bigger than us. So what can we do to give back?” she said.

This was the driving force to reroute almost all of the organization’s focus and resources to Beverly’s hometown. 

“I just want to give back to a community that gave back to me,” she said.

It’s not just money that the foundation offers to those in need. Beverly said her more than 20-year battle with cancer has made it so she can navigate the medical system as well as insurance coverage in a way that allows her to help others do the same. 

“The system’s not going to beat me,” she said. “I’m going to beat the system before it has a chance to.”
Passinault is also a two-time cancer survivor and said volunteering with the Eric R. Beverly Foundation has enriched her life.
“A lot of people come up to me and tell me their stories, and I cry right with them,” Passinault said, adding that people from all over the community will approach her to thank her. “I don’t know who Danielle gives money to, but people come to me and just say thank you and share their story. I get to see where my efforts are going. It really is neighbors helping neighbors, and it’s a wonderful thing. It makes me feel really, really good.”

More than 626,000 people are estimated to die from cancer in the United States in 2026 alone, with more than 2.1 million Americans receiving a cancer diagnosis each year. Beverly said the best things people can do in their health journey are to be their own advocate, know their bodies and never stop digging for answers.
“You have to sometimes put yourself first,” she said. “And I feel like as women, we become wives, we become mothers, we become caregivers potentially to our own parents. But what good are we going to be to all of them if we are not taking care of ourselves?”

Beverly, who now lives in New Orleans with her husband, said, “life is lifing,” yet she remains both blessed and optimistic despite the Stage 4 cancer that has metastasized in her lungs. When asked how she manages the fear and uncertainty of back-to-back-to-back cancers, she says it comes down to “faith, faith, faith.”
“My faith is strong,” she said. “I’m not afraid to die, but I’m just not ready yet because I have a lot of things I need to do on this side of heaven.”

This year’s walk will take place at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Sept. 26, at Munising Middle/High School. For details, visit beverlyfamilyfoundation.org.