Sometimes tragedy and fate land us in different places than expected. In the case of Libby’s Legacy founder Robin Maynard – no stranger to tragedy, as she’s been an EMT and worked in forensics for Orange County – the tragedy was as personal as it could be.
“In 2005, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer,” she says, recalling assurances by doctors that her mother’s treatment would progress easily. “So, I thought, ‘Here we go … everything’s going to be OK.”
It wasn’t OK. Maynard’s mother was given a chance of several years to live. The ride back from the hospital proved to be prophetic.
“On the way home, I said, ‘What do you want to do?’ She said, ‘I want to go on a cruise to Alaska.’ I said, “OK,” and that week I booked it for May, and she died six weeks later. It was devastating for me.”
She didn’t want to use the cruise tickets, the ones she bought for her mother. She wanted to share with others, which makes her an amazing asset to this community.
This year, Scooters for Hooters was canceled; Maynard was too busy helping in other ways. She joined the Pulse of Orlando board in the wake of the Pulse shooting, and as the organization’s website says, “Robin is uniquely qualified to help Pulse victims and survivors make their way through the complicated and often confusing aftermath of this tragedy.” But her heart remains with the legacy, too. Her mother’s legacy.
“We set out to raise $5,000 to send a family on a cruise, and we raised $12,000 the first year,” she says. “People were calling [and asking], ‘Do you do mammograms?’ I said, ‘no, but why don’t we?’ Today, we’ve given over 6,000 breast-care services. We don’t just give the mammogram. We do everything for them. We walk them through it. Anything they have to do we walk them through, as if they’re your mom.”
Gallery photos by Jake Stevens.
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