Southampton Press, May 21, 2008
By Brendan O’Reilly
Kites will soar over Coopers Beach in Southampton Village this Memorial Day weekend, marking the second annual Kites for a Cure event to benefit lung cancer research.
Southampton High School students and other volunteers will be on the beach with an estimated 500 families on Saturday, May 24, to decorate kites and fill the sky with a colorful display. Last year, the event raised $52,000 for Joan’s Legacy, a foundation started by the friends and family of journalist Joan Scarangello, a non-smoker and village resident who died of lung cancer in 2001.
“The last year of her life was a great year for her,” said Roxanne Donovan, Ms. Scarangello’s sister-in-law. “She never stopped being hopeful, she never stopped enjoying her time in the Hamptons, ever.”
Ms. Donovan, the co-chairperson for the event, said Kites for a Cure is held on Coopers Beach because it was one of Ms. Scarangello’s favorite places.
To get the event off the ground last year, Ms. Donovan approached her neighbor, Village Mayor Mark Epley, and asked for the Village Board’s support.
“I thought it was a fantastic thing to do,” the mayor said in a recent interview.
Like Ms. Donovan, Mr. Epley has also been affected by lung cancer.
“My father passed away from lung cancer four years ago,” he said. In fact, Mr. Epley pointed out, the day of this year’s Kites for a Cure, May 24, would have been his father’s 71st birthday.
Mr. Epley attended the 2007 event with his family, and decorated a kite in memory of his father, he said. “Last year was a good family moment for us.”
Kites for a Cure is more about bringing families and the community together than it is about fund-raising, said Tess Wachs of East Hampton, the second co-chairperson of the event.
“It’s an idea that’s really beginning to catch on in a great, hopeful, joyous way,” she added, noting that because of the success last year, Joan’s Legacy is planning similar events in Florida, New Jersey and elsewhere.
Ms. Wachs also praised Southampton High School for its support of Joan’s Legacy—at Kites for a Cure and year round. The high school has adopted Joan’s Legacy as the target of its students’ philanthropic efforts, holding a “pie throw” event in April and supplying the bulk of the volunteers at the kite event. The school raised more than $300 for Joan’s Legacy at the pie throw, giving students the chance to hit their teachers and school administrators in the face with a whip cream pie for $1 a throw.
Jhonathan Florez, a senior at the school, said he spent $25 on pies that day. Besides reveling in the opportunity to pie his teachers, Jhonathan said he was happy to help a charity, and he’ll be volunteering at Kites for a Cure as well.
“It’s a really cool thing to do,” he said. “You help people and have fun for the day.”
Jhonathan is also among a dozen Southampton High School students whose kite artwork is on display at Chrysalis Gallery in Southampton Village as part of a Kites for a Cure promotion. He designed a kite decorated with the Colombian coat of arms and flag, to reflect his heritage. He said it made him feel proud to be selected, because he was able to help a worthy cause—cancer research—with his artwork.
Joan’s Legacy supports lung cancer research through grants, awarding 12 $100,000 grants last year alone, according to the foundation’s executive director, Susan Mantel. The grants allow scientists to test innovative ideas, giving them the opportunity to get attention and funding from the National Cancer Institute, a federal agency.
Mr. Mantel noted that 60 percent of men and woman diagnosed with lung cancer die within a year, and the five-year mortality rate is 85 percent. The high fatality rate makes it hard to raise awareness of the disease, she said. “We don’t have lots of survivors to go marching.”
The National Cancer Institute estimated in 2005 that there are approximately 2.5 million breast cancer survivors living in the United States and more than 2.1 million prostate cancers survivors, compared to only 360,000 lung cancer survivors.
The chances of survival are much higher when lung cancer is detected early on, Ms. Mantel noted.
“If its found early, it can be surgically removed, and sometimes there’s follow-up chemo as well,” she said.
Some new lung cancer therapies are adding three, four, or even five years to the lives of some non-smokers with lung cancer, Ms. Mantel said. “If you have a 5-year-old, three more years is really valuable.”
Kites for a Cure will be held from 4 to 6 p.m. on Coopers Beach in Southampton Village on Saturday, May 24. Participation, including a kite to decorate and a T-shirt, is $25 per person. Parking is free. Registration forms are available at joanslegacy.org.
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