'Love Bites' Tasting Event To Raise Money For Pediatric Cancer Research

Walking it off was how Katy Stewart coped with the pain from her cancer. Since the Sag Harbor native died in 2010 at just 12 years old, her family has carried that perseverance with them, using it as inspiration.

Scarlett James has learned to adopt the same attitude. In 2013, the 9-year-old part-time Bridgehampton resident was diagnosed with a rare form of T-cell lymphoma. And, despite that, she has found her own silver lining: the love between her and the nurses who care for her, according to her mother, Jennifer James.

Support organizations Katy’s Courage and The Scarlett Fund—founded in honor of the two girls—have raised money for pediatric cancer research and giving back to various institutions, including Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, which treated both Katy and Scarlett.

For the first time, the two groups will team up next week at “Love Bites,” a pre-Valentine’s Day party at The Muses in Southampton and, more notably, a fundraiser.

More than 30 local chefs, including Sam McCleland from Bell & Anchor in Sag Harbor and Joseph Realmuto from Nick & Toni’s in East Hampton, will band together to prepare bite-sized portions for a good cause, according to organizer Linda Shapiro. All proceeds will be divided equally between The Scarlett Fund and Katy’s Courage.

“Katy’s Courage was just something that grew naturally out of Kate’s love and her efforts and battling cancer,” her father, Jim Stewart, said last week, adding, “It is almost cliché to say that she handled it with a smile on her face.”

Katy suffered from hepatoblastoma, a rare liver cancer seen in children. Mr. Stewart said one of his daughter’s coaches during her “little athletic careers” might have told her to “walk it off” if something like an ache was bothering her—but, in this case, it was cancer.

“I never said that to her,” he said, remembering a time he walked into his daughter’s bedroom expecting to see her resting. But instead, she was up and out of bed. “She said, ‘Oh, Dad, I’m just walking it off.’ It was one of those things—that was the kind of wit that she had. She was very courageous and upbeat through all of the treatments.”

Katy’s family recently collaborated with the Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton and, in May, created Katy’s Kids, a center for grieving children and their parents.

“We had the ability to do what we were hoping to always be able to do: to be of service to families that had someone die,” Mr. Stewart said, explaining his son, Robert, benefited emotionally when he attended the Children’s Bereavement Center in San Antonio, Texas. “What happened, then, is that we wanted to bring that back up to Eastern Long Island.”

“It is hard to put into words what it is like, the joy on the kids’ faces when they are there,” Mr. Stewart continued, specifying that Katy’s Kids is not counseling or therapy, but actually peer support. “They chat and talk and play, and that is the way they express themselves.”

Scarlett, too, has been able to find joy while fighting cancer and has handled the disease with much resilience and strength, according to Ms. James.

“She has been through so much, but she still smiles and we still find the positives in every day,” she said. “It is this sort of weird feeling because, obviously, you never want to have cancer. Through it all, we have met so many people, and now we want to give back for all of the children before us who made her treatment even possible to save her life.”

Scarlett just finished her 26-month treatment at Sloan-Kettering in November. “I think that it is a very long time for treatment,” Ms. James said. “I think that is what is so difficult about a cancer diagnosis: the length of the treatment, toxicity and long-term side effects.

“I have always said that she is winning her battle against cancer,” she added, “but I don’t think she is leaving the fight.”

“Love Bites” will be held on Saturday, January 23, from 6:30 to 10 p.m. at The Muses in Southampton. Tickets start at $125 and sponsorships start at $1,000. For more information, visit katyscourage.org.