Mingo Junction senior center goes pink, benefits children with cancer
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MINGO JUNCTION -- The Mingo Junction Senior Center was decked out in pink for a breast cancer awareness and benefit event, raising money to buy gifts for children with cancer Thursday.
The center has been hosting a breast cancer awareness event for several years, typically inviting a speaker and raising money to benefit a cause. This year, the center decided to raise money for the UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Cancer Center to buy special, individualized gifts for its patients.
"We want to make money today to serve these kids," said Diane Pernick, the center's secretary, during an opening prayer. "We want them to have something that they can have to remember the happy times in their life and not just the bad."
The center fundraised through a 50-50, drawing baskets, auctions and donations. Attendees could purchase tickets to win a Lowrey organ, along with three books, from C.A. House Music.
This year's speaker was Patti Mannarino, a one-year cancer survivor and member of the Women in Action Against Cancer Coalition of Jefferson County. That organization, she said, is dedicated to cancer prevention education and fundraising to give financial assistance to women who need cancer screenings.
Mannarino began her story with statistics, stating that about 40 percent of Ohioans will be diagnosed with some form of cancer -- Jefferson County leads all of Ohio in the rates of all "sites and types" of cancer, according to a 2014-2016 study by the Ohio Cancer Incidence Surveillance System and the Bureau of Vital Statistics. Also, she said one in eight women will develop breast cancer, herself becoming one of them on Oct. 22, 2021.
Mannarino was diagnosed with stage one breast cancer after a mammogram led to additional testing. She said, "My mind started spinning. ... After going through all the emotions, all the thoughts, I gained a new mindset: embrace and conquer."
Mannarino underwent surgery and was told she needed radiation therapy. Dr. Mark Trombetta, a radiation oncologist at the Tony Teramana Cancer Center, told Mannarino that she met the criteria to receive GammaPod radiation treatment, a new, precise and high-dose radiation therapy that cuts a patient's radiation sessions from about 40 to only five.
With only four GammaPod locations available worldwide at the time, Mannarino said, she ended up being the first individual from the Pittsburgh area to receive the treatment. Now, with her yearly mammogram approaching, Mannarino said she will soon be able to say she has been cancer-free for two years.
Currently, Mannarino said, is involved with the WIAACC, having organized a community yard sale fundraiser for the coalition on Sept. 9 in Aracoma Park.
Pernick reflected on the benefit event's meaning from her perspective, having survived breast cancer in 2014 and cancer of the appendix in 2016. She asked, if the battle with cancer is difficult for adults, how much more difficult must it be for a child?
Getting emotional, Pernick said that her experience with cancer rid her of a "who cares" attitude, giving her a greater appreciation of life and helping her to value each day as a gift from God.
"I thank God every day that I am cancer free," Pernick said, "because if it hadn't been for God, I wouldn't be here. And when they tell you (that) you almost died three times, you look at your life a lot different."
Pernick thanked all of the event's attendees for their contributions. Also, she thanked the center's volunteers, as well as the First United Presbyterian Church of Mingo Junction and its pastor, the Rev. Vaugn A. Foster Sr., for their support.
Food for the event included hotdogs and sloppy joes, provided by Pernick and her sister Phyllis Belon, as well as potato salad made by volunteer Cathy Risdon.
Music for the event was provided by volunteer Rich Grimm, who played guitar and sang classic rock hits. At one point, Grimm was joined on the microphone by attendees Janis Rauch and Alberta Herrick. The latter recalled being a member of a signing group called the Pastels with Grimm, for which each member would wear a different pastel-colored scarf.
Brendan Tobin, an EMT for the Mingo Junction Fire Department, performed one original song on guitar for attendees. Tobin and Assistant Fire Chief Nick Moore attended the event.