LAWRENCE — Walkers lined up across Amesbury Street near the Claddaugh Restaurant & Pub for the third annual TIP Family 4-mile Walk Run in memory of Brenda Waller, a long-time volunteer for the Trauma Intervention Program of Merrimack Valley.
Last Sunday's event drew 253 runners and walkers while raising $8,402, which will be used to continue construction of The TIP Healing Garden and Brenda Waller Way at Henry P. Schruender Memorial Park in Methuen.
David Quintal, 46, of Salem, N.H., a former North Andover resident, won the 4-mile race.
The event was one of the year's major fund-raisers for TIP, which is comprised of a team of 24 trained volunteers who provide on-call emotional first aid to victims of traumatic and tragic events in Andover, Haverhill, Lawrence, Methuen and North Andover.
Following the race, TIP gave a tour of its healing garden off Riverview Boulevard in Methuen, where a pink kidney-shaped bench was recently installed in memory of Waller, who died of cancer on Nov. 4, 2006. It was her never-say-die spirit that inspired the healing garden.
