When a neighbor gave Traci Fotorny a pair of fuzzy socks, she never dreamed the gesture would spark a mission touching thousands of women battling breast cancer! Here, she shares her story with Woman’s World.
When Traci Fotorny’s neighbor knocked on her Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, door with a warm casserole, she was touched — but it was the gift she handed Traci that truly warmed her heart. “I got these for you…it’s not much,” she said, giving Traci a pair of fuzzy socks. But for Traci, it meant the world.
“Somebody wants me to feel cozy,” Traci thought, her heart filling with joy.
In September 2017, a lump in Traci’s right breast turned out to be an aggressive form of cancer. After two lumpectomies, she began chemo, followed by radiation. Traci lost all her hair, battled nausea and felt drained.
But with the love and support of her husband, Scott, her two teenage sons and caring friends and neighbors, Traci fought her way through the tough times.
Spreading comfort with Boxes of Hope
Months later, a friend told Traci about a woman who was in the midst of her own battle with breast cancer. “Can you say a prayer for her?”
“Of course,” Traci replied, but she decided to do more.
Remembering the pair of socks that had brought her so much comfort, Traci found a pink box and filled it with fun socks, gourmet teas, bright nail polish, other small treats, and an uplifting note.
I see you, she wrote, and for some reason felt compelled to add, You need to keep going to your treatments.
The woman wrote back a powerful response: I was about to give up and stop my treatments. I felt so hopeless. But I received your little box of hope, and knowing there was someone out there who cared gave me a reason to keep fighting.
Touched, Traci realized this was her heart’s mission, and when she heard about another woman with breast cancer, she packed a second “Box of Hope.”
Word spread among Traci’s friends, church members and on social media, and folks began reaching out, asking Traci to send a Box of Hope to their loved ones.
“My aunt has breast cancer — can you send her a Box of Hope?” asked one friend.
“My sister was just diagnosed; she’s not doing very well,” pleaded another.
Traci answered each and every request with a little pink box full of goodies, and shipped mastectomy pillows separately because they were too large to fit.
By 2021, Boxes of Hope had grown so large that Traci filed for nonprofit status and found a small office. Each October, she organized a Pink Warrior Day, where cancer patients and survivors gather for a feel-good day of fun, makeovers and professional photo shoots to remind them that they’re still beautiful — inside and out — no matter what they face.
Chayna Guiswite received her Box of Hope at the cancer center where she was first diagnosed with H3 triple-negative breast cancer. “It was exactly what it’s called — a box of hope,” the stay-at-home mom said. At her first Warrior meeting, she enjoyed her makeover and posed for photos in pink boxing gloves.
Traci Fotorny
Attendees enjoyed themselves so much that they asked Traci to get together more often, which led to a monthly support group dubbed Pinky Sisters. “My Box of Hope meant the world to me,” says Sara Peters, who’s undergoing chemo. “But I love being part of Pinky Sisters.”
A sweet sisterhood
These days, when Traci’s not at work at the University of Pennsylvania, she’s packing boxes — over 3,000 so far! — answering emails or on the phone with her Pinky Sisters. “It’s like having two full-time jobs,” she smiles. But one recent evening, Traci was overwhelmed by 87 Boxes of Hope requests in a single day. “I don’t know how I’m going to get them all done,” she sobbed to Scott.
Scott put an arm around his wife. “Remind me again of your motto?”
“Spreading hope one box at a time,” she answered confidently.
“That’s how you’ll do it — one box at a time,” he said, and with Scott and her boys at her side, that’s what Traci did.
“And that’s what I’ll keep doing,” she says. “One box, one woman, one gift of hope at a time.”
Hannah Vandegrift Photography
