PROBATION OFFICER HONORED POSTHUMOUSLY AT PINK TEA

Ann Fuller, former Assistant Chief Probation Officer at Boston Municipal Court, and her dog, Mikey.

Left to right: Maryann Curtain, Essex County Probate & Family Court Probation Officer II, (holding pink scepter) and Pink Tea emcee and hospice volunteer Martha Barrett.

          A group of Probation Officers, who call themselves The North Shore Bad Girls, are gearing up for their 5th Annual Pink Tea, an event held in honor of Ann Fuller, a 30-year Probation Officer who succumbed to cancer four years ago. This year’s Pink Tea will be at the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, MA on Sunday, May 3rd.

          The high tea features guests dressed in pink hats and white gloves. Little girls in attendance are referred to as “mini’s.” Proceeds from the tea are donated to the Hospice of the North Shore, where Fuller spent her last days in her battle against breast cancer, according to Maryann Curtin, a coordinator of the event and close friend and colleague of Fuller’s.

          During her 30-year probation career, Fuller worked as a Probation Officer and Assistant Chief Probation Officer at Boston Municipal Court and Salem District Court. She was also employed by the Office of the Commissioner of Probation.

          “The tea is a serious yet fun event. We began holding it when Anne became sick and entered Hospice care. The event benefits the hospice and gifts those who are ill with niceties such as Reiki therapy, nail, hair and skin care as well as any other service the patient would like,” said Curtin. “The Pink Tea is a celebration of life even though death is a part of life.”

          Also serving as coordinators of the Ladies-Only event are Essex County Probate & Family Court Probation Officers Beverly Johnson and Carmen Ayerve. Last year, more than 250 women attended the tea. Among the attendees were Probation Officers from Salem District, Essex Juvenile, Barnstable Juvenile, and Boston Municipal courts, said Curtin.

          During the Pink Tea, the Tea Cup Award is given to a woman or women who have overcome adversities during the past year. This year, Kristen Murray of Beverly is the recipient of the Tea Cup Award. Murray, a 38-year-old mother of a child suffering with Mitochondrial disease, is undergoing breast cancer treatment, according to Curtin who lost her younger sister to cancer in June 2008.

          “The triumph of hope over trauma is the goal of the Pink Tea,” said Curtin, “All of us have lost friends and relatives to the destruction of cancer.”