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 P.S. By Sharon Klein 11.19.04

Lunch out for a good cause
Over the first weekend in October, during Breast Cancer National Awareness Month, a chef's garden tour, cooking demonstration and lunch were held at the Westward Look Resort to benefit the Breast Cancer Boot Camp exercise course planned for the Brandi Fenton Memorial Park. The hotel's executive chef, Chris Pedersen, treated attendees to a sumptuous three-course menu using ingredients such as prickly pears, lemon grass and Mexican limes from his garden.
As the invitation stated, "No one signs up for breast cancer, but more than 200,000 people will be drafted into battle this year." Breast Cancer Boot Camp co-founders Anita Kellman and Patte Lazarus, with fellow event organizer and executive board member Fran Katz, acted as the afternoon's drill sergeants. The boot camp is a military-style fitness program for breast cancer survivors, their families and friends, which provides the physical, mental and buddy support needed to survive and thrive. It is presently located at Udall Park, but an exercise course is planned for the Brandi Fenton Memorial Park, 57 acres located on the south side of River Road west of Dodge Boulevard. The park, named for a Foothills teenager killed in a 2003 auto accident, is being funded through public and private monies. It will have equestrian, recreational, and agricultural facilities, as well as a memorial garden and other structures.
Keynote speaker April Fenton, Brandi's mother, spoke movingly of her late daughter's love for her family, friends and the outdoors as she outlined the master plan for the park (see the website at www.BrandiFenton Memorial Park.org.)
Present among the lunchtime group were the organizers' spouses, Jeff Katz, Terry Kellman and Dave Lazarus, plus KVOA newscaster and event emcee Dara Demi, Gretchen Aronoff, Terri Caminker, Randy Fenton, Joan Gottlieb, Suzie Hazan, Fern Marmis, Pam Chess-Miglionico and Sheva Chess. 
Making lotsa difference
"Repairing the world one home at a time" is the saying on a plaque given to donors and project coordinators for their contributions to the success of the 2004 Make a Difference Day.
At the 7 a.m. kickoff breakfast held at the JCC on Sunday, Oct. 24, distinguished guests and volunteers gathered to repeat last year's award-winning partnership between the Jewish community (under the auspices of the Federation's Jewish Community Relations Council), the Tucson Police Department and the Pima Council on Aging on this national day of doing good deeds.
Twenty-nine project coordinators led over 650 volunteer workers to rehabilitate 12 houses and three agencies. Andy Karic and his crew from Triumph Builders, along with helpers, did an extreme makeover of the home of a grandmother and her three grandchildren in South Tucson. New windows, doors, cooler, hot water heater, cabinetry, sink, bathtub, shower doors, toilet, 15 tons of gravel, and more transformed a house that was formerly a shambles.
Fifty policemen and their families, including Police Chief Richard Miranda, and 14 volunteers from PCOA were enlisted, as well as local organizations that were mentored to branch off and create their own projects next year.
Lee Surwit praised her co-chair, Patty Vallance: "Patty has a vision; you have to think big to accomplish big."