December 2009
As we near the end of 2009, the board members of Tina’s Wish want to take this opportunity to thank our friends and supporters for their help in the past year, and make sure you are up to date on the activities of Tina’s Wish and our plans for 2010. 2009 was a crazy year for so many of us (especially those of us in the restructuring community); and despite not having enough time to do all we would have liked, we’ve found some very promising research efforts that Tina’s Wish is funding this year as a result of your support. We made the decision that it would be prudent to defer our next benefit dinner until 2010, and we’ll be back to you with more details on that and other upcoming events in the near future. In 2009, we added two members to our board -- Michael Reilly (Co-chair of Financial Restructuring at Bingham McCutchen) and Paul Cleary (Chair and Dean of the Yale School of Public Health), who have become valuable board members and resources to Tina’s Wish. We’ve also just hired our first executive director (on a part time basis) -- Cynthia Hornblower, who has terrific experience with a variety of worthwhile charities, including Legal Momentum and Outward Bound.
Those of you who heard Dr. Gil Mor at our dinner last year, or Dr Nita Maile at our reception in June, will surely remember the passion they bring to their work in early detection and treatment of ovarian cancer. Tina’s Wish continues to support Yale and its extraordinary scientists in their ovarian cancer research. We have added a $100,000 gift to the endowed fund Tina’s Wish established last year; and that gift will be matched dollar for dollar by an anonymous challenge grant, creating a principal fund of $400,000 for annual grants to support special early detection and awareness proposals. The post-doctoral research fellow Tina’s Wish funded for two years through an additional donation last year is working with Dr. Mor and his team on some interesting studies; you’ll find attached a brief update from Dr. Mor on some of the research that is currently ongoing at Yale. We’ll want to keep those efforts in mind as we look ahead to identify areas where Tina’s Wish can help next year.
Tina’s Wish is also supporting some very promising ovarian cancer detection efforts being led by Dr. George Coukos at The University of Pennsylvania. These efforts focus on tumor vasculature biomarkers, which Dr. Coukos and his team believe can be uniquely identified at a very early stage in the cancer’s development, thus providing a new approach to very early stage diagnosis of the disease. As you’ve heard from us before, ovarian cancer is so deadly in large part because it is so rarely detected at an early stage, and this new approach may provide a real breakthrough. We are providing a $200,000 grant to the University of Pennsylvania Ovarian Cancer Research Center, which will, among other things, provide funding for a post-doctoral researcher to support Dr. Coukos’ efforts in mapping and imaging the biomarkers, and moving these efforts toward a test that could be used effectively in women. A brief description of some of Dr. Coukos’ work is attached.
As we look ahead to 2010, we know that we continue to face a challenging economic environment, and we hope we can count on your support for our efforts. In addition to our benefit dinner, we plan to hold some smaller events with an educational component, for those who are interested to learn more about the cutting-edge work in ovarian cancer research at Yale University and The University of Pennsylvania, and some others we will identify over the coming year. Also, we’ve teamed up once again with Cause Celebre, and you’ll be seeing more information soon about Off-Broadway performances of "Recipe for Life" on February 14, 21, 28 and March 7th, which will feature one-act plays by Neil Simon and others, performed by a variety of well-known actors including Zoe Caldwell, Kathleen Chalfant and Marian Seldes. A portion of the proceeds of each performance will benefit Tina’s Wish.
We wish you all a very happy and healthy Holiday season, and look forward to seeing you in the new year. We would be pleased if you’d consider Tina’s Wish in your year-end charitable giving. If you’d like to send us a donation, please forward it to the attention of Cynthia Hornblower, at his Tina’s Wish office at c/o Clifford Chance, 31 W. 52nd Street, New York, NY 10010, or to the Tina’s Wish address at One Federal Street, Boston, MA 02110. You may also make credit card donations on our website: tinaswish.org. Tina’s Wish, The Honorable Tina Brozman Foundation, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, and your donation will be tax deductible. We truly appreciate all you’ve done to help in our efforts to make Tina’s Wish--the early detection and successful treatment of ovarian cancer--a reality.
Warmest regards,
Andrew Brozman, Paul Cleary, Jennifer DeMarco, Julia Frost-Davies, Amy Kyle, Cecelia Morris and Michael Reilly