For
Immediate Release
(Southampton, NY – May 17, 2007) This Memorial Day Weekend, more than 500 families are expected to take part in “Kites for a Cure,” a family kite fly benefit on Coopers Beach in Southampton, NY. The event (Saturday, May 24 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.) is hosted by Joan’s Legacy: Uniting Against Lung Cancer, which funds innovative lung cancer research around the country.
Last year more than 600 people came together to decorate and fly hundreds of kites over one of America’s most beautiful beaches to combat lung cancer – the nation’s #1 Cancer Killer.
“Kites for a Cure is the perfect kick-off for the summer in Southampton, a wonderful family-oriented event on behalf of a worthy cause,” said Mark Epley, Mayor of the Village of Southampton and Honorary Commodore of the event, who is familiar with lung cancer, having lost his father to the disease four years ago. “Kites for a Cure brings families together over Memorial Day Weekend to celebrate the holiday, honor those who are bravely fighting this disease and also memorialize loved ones lost – whether to lung cancer or any other cause.”
With each $25 donation, guests will receive a high-quality kite they can decorate on site – drawing pictures or writing names, wishes and messages to send into the sky on the afternoon’s off-shore breezes. The money raised will support Joan’s Legacy’s national lung cancer research grant program.
“Lung cancer is the nation’s leading cancer killer, and we are committed to raising both awareness and funds to help find a cure for this deadly disease,” said Susan C. Mantel, the foundation’s executive director. “We are elated to host a joyful event to support our goals – a kite fly that will fill the beach with families and the sky with hope and beauty.”
Joan’s Legacy is named for Joan Scarangello, a Southampton resident and non-smoker who lost her battle with lung cancer in 2001. In just six years, the foundation has awarded $3.5 million in research grants to identify the causes, new treatments, and possible cures for the disease that will claim an estimated 160,000 lives in the U.S. this year.
Lung cancer will kill more Americans this year than colon, breast, pancreatic and prostate cancers combined, and more women than breast, uterine and ovarian cancers combined. Yet it receives less federal research funding per death than any of the other major cancers.
“The stigma of smoking – the idea that lung cancer victims brought the disease upon themselves – created a veil of silence and shame around the lung cancer diagnosis that directly impacted funding for a cure,” Ms. Mantel said. “We believe that nobody deserves lung cancer – neither the 25,000 never-smokers diagnosed each year, nor the 135,000 current or former smokers. Bringing hundreds of families together to acknowledge the disease will help us change the perception of the disease, and positively impact research funding.”
Joan’s Legacy, a 501 (c) 3 tax-exempt organization headquartered in New York, has grown under the direction of Joan Scarangello’s family and friends to become one of the leading sources of funding for lung cancer research in the country. Recognized for spurring new and innovative research projects – ideas that wouldn’t get off the ground without the seed funding Joan’s Legacy provides – the foundation has quickly become the venture capital source for important research into the disease.
For more information about Kites for a Cure, to reserve kites and RSVP to the event, or to learn more about Joan’s Legacy and lung cancer, please call 212-627-5500 or visit the foundation’s web site at www.joanslegacy.org.
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