When I walked into the Lakeside Fire Hall with my dear wife Karen and a handful of friends on Sunday afternoon, the scene overwhelmed me.

Hundreds of people were standing in line for a delicious-looking buffet, eating at long and full tables, looking over hundreds of raffle prizes.

Socializing. Sharing stories. Fueling hope. Helping.

The fund-raiser for Stacy Duger-Huntington was really humming.

The mostly smiling woman of honor walked around the room, hugging family and friends. Back in the day, she worked at the big daily in town, on the first floor with Karen while I did my thing on the second floor.

In 2001, Duger-Huntington discovered she had stage two breast cancer. Her fight has been long and courageous, filled with peaks and valleys. A half-dozen years ago, Karen and I walked a 5K at the fairgrounds with a group of friends wearing pink hearts with Stacy’s name on it.

Now, another round in the battle.

Many of the women in the room wore black shirts with pink lettering. “Fight Like a Girl,” it declared.

Some men shared the sentiment across their chests, too, but the most striking sight was the generations of women all taking part in that sentiment. Grandmas. Mothers. Teens. All proudly supporting a woman fighting so hard.