Say "Go fly a kite" in Southampton, and you're likely to get a friendly response.
Some 500 families are expected to do that very thing tomorrow on Southampton's Coopers Beach. It's the second annual mass kite fly hosted by Joan's Legacy: United Against Lung Cancer.
Last year, Kites for a Cure, conceived by friends and family of the late Joan Scarangello, raised $50,000 for research as hundreds of hand-decorated kites soared into the skies.
Among the kite fliers this year will be Southampton Village Mayor Mark Epley, 45, and two of his four children. While the event is a fundraiser, "it's also an important awareness campaign," said Epley, whose father died of lung cancer four years ago.
Many of the kites will memorialize Scarangello, a TV news writer who died of the disease in 2001 at age 47. Some kites will celebrate loved ones battling the nation's No. 1 cancer killer.
One kite will be dedicated to the memory of Lauren Terrazzano, a Newsday reporter who wrote about her own battle with lung cancer until it took her life last May. Terrazzano, 39, saluted the kite fliers in her last "Life with Cancer" column a week before she died. She received the organization's "Joanie Award" for excellence in journalism relating to lung cancer.
Since its founding, Joan's Legacy has generated $3.6 million in "research grants to the country's top research organizations," said Roxanne Donovan, co-chairwoman with Tess Wachs of East Hampton.
The organization also seeks to dispel the myth that lung cancer afflicts only heavy smokers. "There was the concept that smokers had brought cancer on themselves -- people didn't talk about lung cancer or hold walks for it," Donovan said. Yet over 60 percent of newly diagnosed lung cancer victims never smoked cigarettes or had quit smoking.
The kite fly will be from 4 to 6 p.m. Participants pay $25 for a white kite that they can personalize. Parking at Coopers Beach will be free. More information is available at joanslegacy.org. To see more of Newsday, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.newsday.com Copyright (c) 2008, Newsday, Melville, N.Y. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2008 Newsday, Melville, N.Y.