By Mike Russo
Farano has raised thousands of dollars for a number of organizations across Long Island, done internships with prestigious companies, and survived cancer. On Nov. 21, the Association of Fundraising Professionals' Philanthropy Day 2008, he will be honored as the recipient of this year's Leaders of Tomorrow Award.
Farano, 17, has helped raise more than $15,000 as team captain of the Light the Night Walk, an annual fundraiser hosted by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Long Island. He is also involved in fundraising for the St. Baldrick's Foundation, an effort known for the many people who shave their heads to help cancer patients feel more comfortable. (Farano has even shaved his eyebrows for the cause.) He was the first person to be both a camper and a counselor at Sunrise Day Camp, a camp for children with cancer.
Farano said he is motivated by the people he has seen in his fundraising initiatives, and mentioned one cancer case that had a significant impact on him. "In January, I went to a wake for a 6-year-old boy," he said. "They buried him with his favorite toys. Seeing that was just the most powerful thing I could probably see, and it's people like him that I fight for. That's what keeps me going."
Having been a cancer patient himself, Farano knows what they go through every day. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma in September of 2004, while attending East Rockaway High School. During a physical for the school's football team, the school doctor told Farano that his lymph nodes were swollen and he should have them checked out. The next thing he knew, he was in an Intensive Care Unit, where he underwent two years of chemotherapy. In December of 2006, he was declared cancer-free -- the day after he raised more than $6,000 for that year's Light the Night Walk.
He believes that cancer has changed him for the better. "I felt after going through all this that I had the opportunity to give back," said Farano. "Not all the kids who came to my clinic returned every week."
At Baldwin High, he is an active member of the School-to-Career program, which partners students with professionals in a variety of careers through "Shadow Days." Farano interned with the vice president of public relations at Good Samaritan Hospital, and enjoyed it so much that he wanted to do something like it again. So Pat Banhazl, a Baldwin High business teacher and School-to-Career committee member, set Farano up with Margarita Fox, the development and communications manager at Mercy Medical Center.
He worked there for only a day, but Fox was so impressed that she allowed Farano and his partner to make a presentation to the hospital's board of volunteers - something Fox would have otherwise done herself. She even pulled some strings to help Farano get a paid internship this summer, in which he did research for advertising products and came up with innovative ways to raise money and awareness for the hospital.
"I learned so much," said Farano. "There was no other opportunity that I had like this."
Fox spoke about Farano at the high school's School-to-Career Advisory Breakfast Oct. 30. "Nick is more forceful on the phone than I am," she said. "I think I did more of the learning than Nick did."
Farano also worked on the AFP's Philanthropy Day, given the task of encouraging companies to exhibit at the same conference at which he will be honored as a Leader of Tomorrow.
"When I found out about it, I was ecstatic," he said. "It's not because I'm being appreciated, because that's the wrong word, but to see what I do really matters. It really [puts in] perspective that all this effort isn't wasted -- not that I ever thought that, but it just puts it all in perspective."
Farano is currently looking at colleges in New York, Philadelphia and Boston, and recently returned from a college scouting trip to Maryland. He said he is leaving his options open, but is positive that he wants to pursue a career in nonprofit management and marketing. He attributes his career vision and success to the tireless efforts of his teachers at Baldwin High, whom he also sees as mentors in every aspect of his life.
"I think that the business department here in Baldwin led me in the perfect direction," he said. "They were really the reason that I am where I am right now. When I just needed to talk, they guided me in the right direction. They want to see you succeed."
Comments about this story? MRusso@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 283.
