About the Sally Edelman - Harry Gardner Cancer Research Foundation

Members of the Edelman-Gardner Cancer Research Foundation toured the new building. From left, Robert Westcott, Debbie Kwiatkowski, John Kwiatkowski, Robert Diedrich, Richard I. Fisher, M.D., director of the Wilmot Cancer Center, George Kauffman, Judy Harris, Wayne Mault and George Edelman.

Lessons on the power of a single dollar can be learned from leaders of the Sally Edelman-Harry Gardner Cancer Research Foundation. The group has led nearly 36 years of grassroots fund-raising to support research at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center. Over the past five years alone, the Foundation has donated $250,000 to the Wilmot Cancer Center for research, and scientists, in turn, have brought $7.6 million to Rochester’s effort to find cures. “One of the things we’re proud of is how our grants have been multiplied over and over to fund research for cancer cures,” says George Edelman Jr., president of the Hilton-based foundation.

The genesis was in 1973, shortly after the federal government launched its war on cancer by spending millions for cancer research. Edelman began collecting donations at the Arlington Restaurant, which he had owned. No one knew the impact the small community would eventually make. “People really got involved and did everything they could. I remember little kids bringing me a jar of pennies,” Edelman says. “It really shows how broad this is and that every penny counts.”

The donations poured in when village postman Harry Gardner was diagnosed with cancer and later died in 1977. Then Edelman’s wife, Sally, was diagnosed with cancer and died a short time later, in 1982, and his commitment grew stronger. Friends launched annual golf, bowling and euchre tournaments, motorcycle and bicycle rides, book sales and bottle drives and thousands of dollars were raised. Edelman and others formalized the project in 1984 by creating the Foundation, and set a goal of raising $1 million for local cancer research at the Wilmot Cancer Center. The Foundation provides “seed grants,” or early funding for scientists to explore new ideas, and then use the fi ndings to secure grants from major funders such as the National Cancer Institute.

For example, in 2004, the Foundation awarded a $25,000 grant to Laura Calvi, M.D., associate professor, who studies hematopoietic stem cells (blood stem cells.) Her research findings have garnered $2.7 million in additional grants from the National Institutes of Health, and she was named a Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences. The Foundation Board of Directors, which includes Edelman, Karen Hermance, secretary, George Kauffman, treasurer, Robert Diedrich and John Kwiatkowski, and Bob Westcott who served for many years, invested the funds and established a generous plan for supporting the research program annually. Since its inception, the Foundation has given more than $800,000 to the cancer center for research. “It’s pretty amazing that we’ve gone from collecting money with dollar boards to car washes and rides and today we’re having a real impact on cancer,” says Kauffman.