By Nicole Falco
But the help is more than just monetary. Along the way many have experienced the warm and tingly feeling that comes when you give of yourself as a volunteer, hundreds of families have had a little less to worry about as they struggle through the imminent death of a loved one, and each year hundreds gather at two separate events and simply have a good time.
On Aug. 6, the Sixth Annual Pat Cairo Family Foundation Inc. Golf Outing will tee off at 6:30 a.m. at the Lido Golf Club in Lido Beach. There will be two rounds of golf followed by cocktails and dinner. Sports celebrities including New York Jets Quarterback Vinny Testaverde and former New York Yankee first baseman Joe Pepitone have been known to play a round or two.
This golf outing is less about playing golf and more about being together for a good cause according to organizers and volunteers. In fact, at times the golf outing can seem more like an excuse to eat. The day begins with a 5:30 a.m. breakfast buffet followed by the first tee-off at 6:30 a.m. There's a barbecue set up at the first hole and tents set up at the fourth, seventh and seventeenth holes where participants can eat again. Yet another, larger tent is set up somewhere around the 12th hole where even more food is cooked and served all day long. Of course, there's the evening dinner reception.
"People who go to our outing should not eat for at least a day or two before they come," said Joe Cairo, who founded the Pat Cairo Family Foundation Inc. with the help of a friend, on March 22, 1995, just one day before his 50-year-old wife of almost 20 years succumbed to the cancer she had been battling for over five years.
Cairo, his two children, Lisa and Michael, and Pat's two sons from a previous marriage, Kevin and Shane O'Neil, decided they wanted to do something to help people who were very sick with cancer. Their neighbor, John Ragano, a lawyer, helped the family form the not-for-profit organization. Since 1996 the foundation has held a yearly dinner on or around Pat's March 4 birth date that now attracts between 800 and 900 people. In 1997, the family added the golf outing, which sees almost 300 participants.
"The dinner started out as family and friends, but as it started to develop you would be amazed, unfortunately, many, many people have been affected in their lives by cancer and they look at the dinner or golf outing as a way for them to do something that is good and beneficial for people who suffer from cancer," Cairo, a North Valley Stream resident, said.
Between the dinner and golf outing, the foundation has raised over $850,000. Half of the money raised goes to Calvary Hospital in the Bronx, an end-of-life care facility, and the rest goes to fund cancer research. Since the foundation is operated by a core group of about 35 volunteers, much of the food served at the golf outing is donated by local vendors, and the Lido Golf Club offers their facilities at a discounted rate, the majority of the money raised goes directly to Calvary and the research projects, which are overseen by Dr. Carolyn Runowicz, vice chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan. Runowicz, then affiliated with Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Cancer Center, treated Pat during much of her illness.
Through the HERA Foundation, Runowicz oversees a team of fellows-in-training as they begin their careers as cancer researchers. The donations are used as the initial "seed" money to fund their projects.
"[The Pat Cairo Foundation] covers the two most important aspects of this disease: understanding why people get cancer and the treatments that are available to them and helping patients who aren't successfully treated," Runowicz said.
Pat, an active woman who enjoyed sports, particularly tennis, was diagnosed with squamous cell cancer of the vulva, a gynecological cancer, during a routine check-up in December 1989. For the next five years until her death in March 1995, Pat was in and out of remission and the hospital.
"Pat was tough, she was a fighter and optimistic the whole time," Cairo said.
Pat spent the last few weeks of her life at Calvary. At first reluctant to have his wife admitted to Calvary, a not-for-profit hospital for those in advanced stages of cancer, Cairo's anger and denial turned into a respect for the facility and the people who work there. In addition to donating half of the money raised by the foundation, Cairo was also instrumental in lobbying state legislators to get the End-of-Life-Care Law passed in 1999. Cairo was given the pen used by Governor George Pataki when he signed the bill on Oct. 13, 1999.
The bill insures terminally ill patients the right to be admitted to an acute care facility, such as Calvary, first of all if they want admittance, if their physician recommends it and if the facilities' medical director approves it and the insurance companies must agree to the admission and payment for the patient's stay. If disputed, the insurance company bears the burden of proving why the patient shouldn't be admitted. Prior to the law, the patient had to prove why he should be admitted. In most cases there was little time to do so before the patient succumbed to illness.
On March 4, 2000, the wing where Pat stayed was dedicated in her honor. "The Patricia A. Cairo Memorial Hall," is only the second time in Calvary's 100-plus year history that an area of the hospital was dedicated. A wing is also named in honor of Dr. Joseph Briamonte, one of the hospital's founding physicians.
According to Frank Calamari, president and CEO of Calvary, the hospital has easily admitted 250 patients and kept many more patients in its care since the bill was passed. In addition, the money raised has been used to help patients who might not otherwise have the money or insurance coverage to be admitted to Calvary, which sees almost 3,000 patients annually.
On Aug. 6, Calamari will participate in the golf outing, but, admittedly, not well.
"It is like nothing I have ever been to before, but that's because of the people who run it. The family is close-knit and very loving," Calamari said. "I've been to tournaments that are ostentatious, theirs is not ostentatious. Participating in it gives you a warm feeling in your stomach."
Volunteering is also rewarding according to those who do it. Nick Famiglietti is a long-time friend of the Cairo family and has been donating his time during both the golf outing and dinner
"It's really a unique outing. People come back and tell their friends about it and that's why it has become so successful over the years," Famiglietti said. "Joe is such a wonderful man. He made up his mind and made a commitment to set up something in his wife's name and chose not to do it in the standard fashion. ... The money goes directly to the people, not the [cancer] societies."
Kathy Hopkins also volunteers each year. Not only is she a friend of the family, but her life was affected by cancer when her 46-year-old brother-in-law died from the disease in 1993 leaving behind four young sons.
"Volunteering is a way of giving back and then being there makes you feel good about people in general. This money comes mostly from 'little people' who struggle to give $50 or $100. When they do, it truly is a gift of their heart," Hopkins said.
For more information about the Aug. 6 golf outing or the Pat Cairo Family Foundation contact Joe Cairo at 825-2950.
