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Carnival for a cure
Aug 25, 09 3:17 PM
Roar for a cure to raise money for children fighting cancer
Aug 18, 09 6:27 PM
moreThis spring, East Hampton High School health teacher and wrestling, soccer and tennis coach Jim Stewart and his wife, Brigid, learned that their 10-year-old daughter, Katy, has a rare form of liver cancer. The family has since devoted themselves to caring for her, no matter the cost, but it will be a tough road to recovery.
The cancer was discovered in April after Katy slept over at a friend’s house and awoke in the early morning hours with stomach pains. She was rushed to Southampton Hospital and hours later was transferred to Stony Brook Hospital, where a CAT scan revealed that she had a tumor on her liver. A week later, biopsy results showed the tumor was malignant and the Stewarts’ lives were forever changed.
On Saturday, August 22, the “Roar for a Cure” carnival at East Hampton Indoor Tennis Club will give the community a chance to help the Stewarts and hundreds of other children and families suffering with all forms of pediatric cancer. The four-hour event will include catered food, games, prizes, auctions, celebrity guests and live entertainment from Push Play, a teen band the organizers called Long Island’s answer to the Jonas Brothers.
Proceeds from the carnival will first go to the Max Cure Foundation for Pediatric Cancer Causes and will then be distributed to the Max Cure Fund for Pediatric Cancer Research and Katy’s Courage Fund, an LLC created to assist the Stewarts with their financial needs while caring for Katy. Seventy percent of the net proceeds will go to the Max Cure Fund, 25 percent will be donated to Katy’s Courage and 5 percent will be dedicated to the T.J. Martell Foundation for leukemia, cancer and AIDS research.
In 2007, David and Annemarie Plotkin, a New York City couple who summer in East Hampton, learned that their young son Max has a rare form of B-Cell Lymphoma in his bones. He had a biopsy just one day before his fourth birthday and the family got the bad news eight days later.
One month after that, the Max Cure Fund for Pediatric Cancer Research was born.
The fund was established at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan and the Max Cure Foundation for Pediatric Cancer Causes was formed in December of the following year. The foundation aims to raise $5 million for the Max Cure Fund and underwrite the establishment of a research laboratory at Sloan-Kettering devoted to curing and treating pediatric cancers. Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center is the world’s oldest and largest private institution dedicated to cancer research, prevention, education and patient care.
Max recently completed his second year of chemotherapy at Sloane-Kettering. He has a 3-year-old brother Alexander and a newborn sister, Ella.
In their efforts to raise money, the Plotkins asked Scott Rubenstein, a family friend and the owner of East Hampton Indoor Tennis Club, if they could use the facility for a benefit carnival this summer. Rubenstein suggested that the event could also benefit the Stewarts, who have been enduring great financial pressure and difficult lifestyle changes in their fight against Katy’s disease. The Plotkins agreed and the carnival was planned.
Meanwhile, Jim Stewart took his daughter to a baseball game at Yankee Stadium on Monday, hoping to have a little fun before her first surgery at Sloan-Kettering on Thursday. After the surgery, the family, including Katy’s brother Robert, 4, will have to travel to the city regularly for her chemotherapy treatments.
Both Jim and Brigid Stewart have dedicated their lives to educating local children and their good work has affected thousands of students for more than three decades. Ms. Stewart is the assistant principal at Montauk Public School, she taught English in East Hampton and was the director of the Peconic Teacher Center for Southampton Schools where she helped East End teachers with professional development. Mr. Stewart has taught at East Hampton for more than 30 years and he’s coached generations of Bonackers.
To buy tickets or learn more about Roar for a Cure, the Max Cure Fund and Foundation and Katy’s Courage, visit maxcurefoundation.org.
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