The Featured Charity for the Month of May is
Gildas Club
http://www.gildasclub.org/ For each "Live,Love,Laugh" piece that is sold in my shop for the month of May I will donate a portion of proceeds to Gilda's Club.
Gilda's Club was founded by Joanna Bull. Joanna Bull started Gilda's Club after working as a cancer psychotherapist during Radner's illness. Gilda's Club provides meeting places where men,women and children living with cancer can join others to build a personal network of social and emotional support. Gilda's Club offers free support,networking groups, seminars,workshops,specialized children's programs and social events. They are a non profit group that seeks funding from private individuals, corporations and foundations.
Now a bit about Gilda Radner. Radner was originally from the Detroit area and her Father owned Detroit's Seville Hotel, where many nightclub performers and actors stayed while performing in the Detroit area. You have to think that her exposure at the hotel lead to her love for comedy. Radner was a featured player on the National Lampoon Radio Hour and worked with John Belushi,Chevy Chase, and Bill Murray. She caught a major break when she joined Saturady Night Live as their first cast member, I think many of us remember how hilarious she was playing the character of Roseanne Roseannadanna. Radner won an Emmy Award in 1978 for her work on SNL. Radner also did some broadway work and had several films including Hanky Panky and Haunted Honeymoon. In 1986 after many misdiagnoses Radner discovered she had ovarian cancer and at some point the cancer went into remission. In May of 1989 the cancer came back after a very painful struggle with her chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment she died on May 20th 1989.
After Radner's death the awareness for ovarian cancer improved greatly as she was very open about her personal struggle with cancer.
In 1991, Gilda's Club was created and now has many clubhouses operating across the country. I will leave you with a quote from Radner, "Having cancer gave me a membership in a elite club I'd rather not belong to."
