Newsletter of the Needham Rotary Club for March 8th 2022
Mark Your Calendar, Upcoming Events:
- Thursday, March 10th: Needham Education Foundation Trivia Bee in Needham High School cafeteria at 7:00pm
- March 16th: Rotary Club of Westborough: Trex Plastic Recycling Challenge. Louise Condon and Kathy Whitney are collecting plastic shopping bags to help the environment and the Westborough club.
- Saturday, March 26th: Rotary Diversity Equity and Inclusion Summit, 9-11am. To register: http://www.rotarydeisummit.org
- Tuesday, March 29th: Flowers for the Elderly, at Condon Real Estate, noon
- Saturday, April 23rd, (day after) Earth Day: Kathy is looking for volunteers to join her in a cleanup project.
- Tuesday, June 14th: Rotary Club of Needham Picnic at Clayton Field at 5:30. Bring your own everything.
Our Speaker: Kristen Sajdak (photo below), Community Relations Manager, Ellie Fund for Breast Cancer
Kristen Sajdak, Community Relations Manager for the Ellie Fund, spoke with us about the services provided by the Fund and its history. The Fund was founded by the sons of Ellie Popkin in 1995. Ellie died of breast cancer after a 15 year battle in 1987. She lived in and the Fund's administrative offices are located in Needham. Every year in Massachusetts there are 7,000 new women diagnosed with breast cancer. The Ellie Fund helped 650 of those patients last year. The Fund's mission is to reduce the following barriers to treatment for women with breast cancer residing in or receiving treatment in Massachusetts:
- the high cost of medical care
- the loss of income during treatment
- the lack of transportation to medical appointments
- the high cost of childcare during treatment.
The Ellie Fund provides the following services to lower the barriers to allow the focus to be on family, recovery and healing:
- grocery assistance in the form of gift cards to participating grocery stores,
- transportation assistance to/from medical appointments,
- light housekeeping assistance in the form of gift cards or reimbursement for cleaning services,
- childcare reimbursement, and
- preprepared meals delivered once per month.
Services are awarded to patients in the form of grants: 3 month grants for non-metastatic cancer patients and 6 month grants to those with metastatic cancer. Each patient can specify a maximum of two services during the grant period. Recipients are lower income: 40% of Ellie Fund patients have household income under $25,000. The Pandemic has disrupted services: the number of patients served has fallen from 900 before COVID, and important, fund-raising events had to be temporarily replaced with charitable grants. With re-opening, the "Real Golfers Wear Pink" tournament and "Team Ellie" runners for charity in the Marathon and the Falmouth Road Race are back on the calendar.
For more information, including finding volunteer and fund-raising opportunities or to make a donation, see the website: http://www.elliefund.org
Our Next (Zoom) Meeting: Tuesday March 15th at noon. Our Speaker will be: Ellen Dudley, Needham Can