565 Turn Out For Doody Luncheon
By Alex Malecki, The Town Report
Eastchester - By the time Jeff Hass and Dan Heyman took to the
podium to open the first annual Jim Doody Luncheon for Hope, some 565 people had come to Lake Isle Country Club.
By all accounts, it was an amazing turnout. Though considering whom it was
for, perhaps one shouldn't have been surprised. As one former Eastchester resident noted, it was Jim Doody. Enough
said.
"It was a real tribute to Jim and the entire Doody family." said Carol Brandenburg
as people around poured in through the Fountain Room. "It's a privilege to be able to help in some way."
More than 60 others must have thought so too, because the list of planning committee
names was trumped only by the 145 auction prizes, not counting the raffles. Donors ranged from local families and businesses
such as Piper's Kilt and the Westchester Martial Arts Academy to the New York Giants and New Jersey Devils.
Formed in January of this year, the Jim Doody Foundation was established by his
family as means of not only preserving his memory, but to promote awareness of brain tumors and raise the much needed funds
for their continued research. And as Sunday's program read, "Jim Doody's work on earth in not over; in some ways, it
has only just begun."
To that end, the luncheon featured remarks by Dr. Darell Bigner, deputy director
of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center, and Dr. Henry Friedman, co-director of its Clinical Neuro-Oncology Program.
Friedman said he already met a family on the way in that needed his help.
Friedman spoke of the various methods being developed to stunt tumor growth.
Although the Brain Tumor Center at Duke was established in 1937 as on eof the first brain tumor research and clinical
programs in the country, doctors still know very little about why such tumors originate. More importantly, however,
Friedman spoke of brain tumors as an orphan disease that needs events such as the one on Sunday to help the center continue
to help patients.
"If people like you don't care, then nobody is going to care," he said.
Bigner noted that brain tumors are not uncommon as approximately 20,000 people
develop malignant tumors each year. They are the leading cause of cancer death in children and often demonstrate a correlation
with other, more common cancers that affect the breasts and lungs.
While Duke receives the majority of its funding from National Institute of Health,
Bigner was adamant that private philanthropy is necessary to bolster research. And with people like Steve Case of America
Online fame providing financial support and lobbying in Congress, progress is being made.
"I'm more optimistic that I've been in more than 30 years of research into the
problem," Bigner said.
Part of the luncheon included the naming of the first annual Jim Doody Scholarship
winners. Fitting, Bronxville's Julie MacAllister, Eastchester's Koki Ohmura and Tuckahoe's Janna Ingrao are all members
of the Eastchester Youth Council, a group Doody helped form after taking office in 1984 for the first 10 years as town supervisor.
Bunny Rappaport, who has served as EYC's volunteer director since its inception, said the scholarship has been given out the
past four years to local students active in theater and community service. She said it's fitting now to have the scholarship
named after Doody, who was always supportive of youth programs.
"This even has Jim Doody written all over it because it is so bipartisan," Kathleen
Doody Redmond said.
Having worked with Doody for 17 years as the two rented a space from Hass, with
the three ultimately becoming friends, Heyman said the former supervisor and Tuckahoe Board of Education president wouldn't
have expected anything less from the people of Eastchester.
"I'm sure he'd be very touched by it," Heyman said.
Both Hass and Heyman have had others close to them succumb to the disease.
Hass lost his father-in-law within a span of two months. Heyman's friend Murray Prawer survived four years after his
diagnosis, leaving hiss job to meet and help others with brain tumors. On Sunday, Hass and Heyman joined 565 others
in continuing the goodwill.
"There will come a day when there won't be neuro-oncologists," Friedman said, adding
that when that day comes, he'll be ready to take up handball.
And with organizations like the Doody Foundation, that day will come sooner rather
than later.
"He (Doody) truly believed that one person can make a difference," Redmond said.
"With your support, we can give them (the diagnosed) the hope to continue that fight."
