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Media Contact: Michael Schwartzberg, Media Relations Manager Leading Baltimore Area Chefs Cook To Combat Cancer “Ten Great Chefs Cooking For A GREATER Cause” BALTIMORE – July 20, 2005 – As far as fundraisers go, this one is sure to be both “greater” and delicious. Ten of the area’s finest chefs are participating in “Ten Great Chefs Cooking For A GREATER Cause”, a first-of-its-kind benefit for Greater Baltimore Medical Center’s Milton J. Dance Jr. Head & Neck Rehabilitation Center. “Ten Great Chefs Cooking For A GREATER Cause” is being held on July 26 at Baltimore’s Red Fish restaurant (845 South Montford Ave., corner of Boston St. in Canton). Cocktails and a live auction begin at 6 p.m., with dinner following at 7 p.m. The event recognizes Dance Center clinical staff, including John R. Saunders. Jr., M.D. (Medical Director), Richard M. Hirata, M.D. and Eva S. Zinreich, M.D., and Marshall A. Levine, M.D. of the Cancer Center, and is expected to raise in excess of $20,000 to benefit head and neck cancer patients being treated at GBMC. Ted Stelzenmuller, executive chef of Red Fish, approached his Fraternite Gastronomique (“Brotherhood of Food”) colleagues (a professional chefs association) with the idea of sponsoring a grassroots event to support the Dance Center, where his girlfriend’s father, David Green of Timonium, has been treated since receiving a thyroid cancer diagnosis in May 2000. Stelzenmuller, a graduate of Baltimore International Culinary College, was quickly backed by other area chefs, all of whom are volunteering their time and expertise. In addition, restaurants and vendors have donated food and supplies. “Unfortunately, I believe head and neck cancers are overshadowed by other physical and mental illnesses,” says Stelzenmuller. “Often we are unaware of the signs and effects associated with these types of cancer. Hopefully this event, and others in the future, will raise awareness of these cancers and provide funds for continued research and treatment.” Participating Chefs
Menu Highlights
The menu items have been carefully selected because we wanted to promote cooking with ingredients that are beneficial to health living,” says Stelzenmuller. “We’re using many ingredients that are high in folic acid and are anti-oxidants. As a group we also want to demonstrate that healthy eating does not have to mean boring and unappealing food.” Green, a previously healthy man in his mid-50s who played sports and exercised regularly, found a small lump on his neck while shaving in May of 2000. A referral from his primary care physician led Green to GBMC’s Dance Center and specialist Richard Hirata, M.D. After his first surgery in July of 2000, it was determined that Green had Hurthle cell cancer, a type of thyroid cancer. Several months later a second surgery, and a third in 2003, removed additional tumors. Two sessions of external beam radiation and continued consultation have followed – including a recent five-month period where Green was almost entirely without a voice, leading to intensive speech therapy training. Now Green, a veteran of more than three decades in the foodservice industry and a global business development executive with McCormick & Company, Inc., is working with doctors @ GBMC’s Cancer Center exploring various clinical trials in hopes of finding a systemwide therapy to address recurring tumors. “These treatments have brought me in contact with staff at the hospital on a weekly and sometimes daily basis – many of whom I only know by their first names - who have all been part of a positive experience for a negative situation,” says Green, whose father died of cancer at age 64. “You have to be positive, otherwise it will wear you down.” The Dance Center is the first ever to take a multidisciplinary approach to the treatment of head and neck cancer. The Center has treated more than 1,700 patients from across the United States and across the globe. The Center’s comprehensive services address every physical and emotional need of patients with head and neck conditions - from surgery to voice rehabilitation, dentistry to swallowing. An integrated approach teams the patient and their primary care physician with specialists in the disciplines of dentistry, maxillofacial prosthodontia, medical oncology, nursing, nutritional services, occupational therapy, physical therapy, radiation oncology, social work, speech-language pathology and surgery. The Dance Center is named after famed auctioneer Milton J. “Laddie” Dance, a throat cancer patient who formed an endowment in 1981 to fund a head and neck rehabilitation clinic that would focus on improving quality of life for its patients. Dance, who passed away in November 2002, was co-owner of champion horse Lemon Drop Kid and spent more than four decades as an auctioneer with Fasig-Tipton, the oldest Thoroughbred auction firm in America. “It’s only fitting that as part of this great event we’ve included an auction, which will not only help raise additional funds to help head and neck cancer patients but is a special way of remembering Laddie Dance, under whose vision the Dance Center became a reality,” says Stelzenmuller. Orioles memorabilia for the auction includes a signed, game worn B.J. Surhoff jersey, a Rafael Palmeiro signed baseball, and a Larry Bigbie signed baseball bat. Also being auctioned are cooking lessons from some of the area’s finest chefs, restaurant gift certificates, pearl earrings from Zachary's Jewelers in Annapolis, tickets to the National Ballet of Maryland, paintings from local artist Nicholas DiFonzo, gym memberships, martial arts classes and other items. GBMC includes Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC), Central Maryland’s leading community hospital; Hospice of Baltimore, which provides comfort and care to patients with life-limiting illnesses; the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Community Health Center, which offers comprehensive health and family services to the residents of East Baltimore; and the GBMC Foundation, which supports the GBMC mission by managing fundraising efforts. The 300-bed Medical Center, located on a beautiful suburban campus, serves nearly 22,000 inpatients annually as well as providing approximately 50,000 emergency room visits. For more information, go to www.gbmc.org. ###
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