From New Hyde Park & Great Neck, Around the Globe, Signatures on Petition are Children’s Plea for Peace

Photo by James Kavallines, taken for the New York Herald Tribune.

In 1961, two residents from the New Hyde Park/Great Neck area, Hazel Kaufman and Fran Wunderlich, became increasingly alarmed by the ominous signs of war between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.  The rhetoric between Kennedy and Khrushchev was constantly escalating.  Media reports were dire and threatening.  Children in Great Neck, including those of Hazel and Fran, were being told to hide under their desks in case of a Soviet missile attack.  Nuclear war seemed inevitable, even imminent.  Fran and Hazel decided to take matters into their own hands.  They wrote a petition, to be signed mostly by children, simply pleading for peace, not war, between the two superpowers.  It called on Kennedy and Khrushchev to stress reason and discussion over rhetoric and confrontation.  They called their movement The Children’s Plea for Peace.  Children took copies of the petitions to school and asked other students to sign them.  This was done in cooperation with the Great Neck Public Schools’ administration.  Other children and parents from other communities heard about the petitions and asked for copies.  Soon, people were circulating the petition all over the U.S., and in England, Japan, and India.  Word of the Plea for Peace began to spread.  Extensive coverage in the media followed.  Participants in the Plea for Peace were interviewed by the New York Times, the New York Herald Tribune, the New York Post, and many local newspapers.
 

Participants in the Children’s Plea for Peace included Elissa Kaufman (14), Michael Wunderlich (10), and Richard Lazes (13), who traveled with fellow students from New Hyde Park to the United Nations to rally.   Their aim was to present a scroll comprising 10,000 petition signatures to the international organization.  Their pleas were recognized – undersecretary Ralph Bunch accepted their petition scroll on behalf of the United Nations, and media coverage of the Plea for Peace took off.  Photo by James Kavallines, taken for the New York Herald Tribune.
     

When 10,000 people had signed, Great Neck’s Plea for Peacers attached all of their petitions together, end to end, to form a huge scroll.  A large group of children traveled to the United Nations in Manhattan with placards in hand, asking that they be allowed to officially present their petitions to the international body.  Dr. Ralph Bunche, noted diplomat, academic, and U.N. administrator received three of the Plea for Peace children, and accepted their petition scroll, which remains in the U.N. archival collection to this day.
 

   

Signatures for the petition arrived from around the world, including over 700 students from the Mar Basil High School, Kothamangalam, Kerala State, South India (left), and the Kamakura Prefecture, Japan, near Tokyo (right).

  

Other than advocating for peace and respectful, constructive communication between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., participants in The Children’s Plea for Peace learned a valuable lesson in civics.  They discovered that their efforts and concerns could be recognized, and that their activities could have real effects on the social discourse of the day.  Many of the Plea for Peace children went on to become advocates, activists and civic leaders.  The Children’s Plea for Peace had taught them how to act on the issues that mattered to them, and speak up for what they believed in.
    

Press coverage in local and New York City papers took off as the Plea for Peace grew, culminating with the response to the presentation by children of over 10,000 signatures at the U.N.

   

Images and information for this blog post were provided to the Great Neck Library by Hazel Kaufman.  This blog post is a companion to a local history display at the Main Building of the Great Neck Library, on view until September, 2011.

Today's FDA Avastin Decision

There's a lot of news out there about the FDA's 6 to 0 vote today recommending that Avastin not gain full approval for treating women with metastatic breast cancer. This case has been watched closely by both drug companies and cancer patient advocate groups. The final decision for withdrawing full approval rests with the FDA Commissioner, Margaret Hamberg. According to one news source, that decision will be rendered later this summer.

I've followed this issue closely. I'm not going to comment on the accelerated approval process granted by the FDA which allowed on label use of this drug sooner than later. With some fear of upsetting people who sided against the FDA, based on what I've read and after careful consideration, the FDA panel is making a sound recommendation.

I base this on the assumption, which I believe to be true, that the NCCN (National Comprehensive Cancer Network) Compendium will continue to list Avastin as a treatment option for breast cancer. This compendium is used by many insurance companies and Medicare to determine which treatments will be reimbursed. The panel's recommendation and ultimate decision to remove the breast cancer approval will not prevent doctors from prescribing Avastin to their breast cancer patients. In addition, Avastin is a serious drug with potentially deadly side-effects (internal bleeding). Unfortunately for patients, Genentech, and our hope for a cure, Avastin showed only marginal benefit in two recent studies. There are many, myself included, that for some people Avastin is the answer and our medical community is hard at work to find the bio-markers which show which patients have the greatest chance of success without endangering women who will not benefit.

Today's recommendation is a win for patients, doctors, and the FDA. Patients will continue to have access to this treatment regimen, insurance companies will continue to pay for the treatment, doctors will still be able to prescribe it to patients who they believe it will benefits, and the FDA is protecting the American people against unnecessary risks.

In closing, I credit my medical team who had the foresight to treat me with Avastin (in off-label use for head & neck cancer) with significantly prolonging my life although I can't prove that it was the Avastin that did the trick. I wish the two recent Avastin breast cancer studies on which the FDA panel based their recommendation had shown great benefit for breast cancer patients, but they didn't.

Lastly, I apologize to anyone I may offend for having sided with the FDA on this one. It is not about the money, it is not about death panels, it is not about Obama care; it is about the science.

Take care.

What a H&N Cancer Patient doesn't want to have...

A sore throat. For most people, me included, a sore throat was (past tense) just that and nothing more. We all get them. That was then; now it dredges up a lot of bad memories and negative possibilities. I've been feeling a bit under the weather for about two weeks with frequent migraines, more than the usual fatigue and loss of appetite, and a SORE THROAT. I went to the doctors today for my annual physical (it's actually been a few years). They swabbed my throat and it came back positive for type A strep. I began a 10 day regimen of an antibiotic. In researching this on the Internet, it appears that this is a pretty common illness and that whatever contagion I may have will be gone within 24 hours of beginning my medication. For now, the best cure is a little extra rest.

I can't not wonder how I got this. I realize this is a stretch with possibly scant medical backing. For me, I believe it to be a somewhat compromised immune system from my cancer and all my cancer treatments and a potential side effect of the stress and close people contact associated with traveling (that trip to ASCO 2011 in Chicago two weeks ago). I've mentioned in the past that travelling is a challenge for me, this is one of a number of those challenges... real or imagined.

Take care everyone.

Ed

Muskhane felt treasures

Muskhane is a company based in the heart of Himalayas. They create beautiful home accessories including these sweet bird houses for stashing those secret treasures and felt cushions in the most delicious colours. Mustard and fluorescent pink, who would have thought they'd look sooooo good together? They specialise in felt objects for kids and adults and they are passionately dedicated to fair and responsible trade.

Bird House $75
Bird on a ring $32
Felt cushions from $55
Felt purses from $18.50
French cushions from $85

We also have some amazing French cushions in the very cute Bambi one below is just a one design so come in and check out the rest!

Targeted Cancer Therapies - A Peek Behind the Curtain

Lions, and Tigers and Bears! Oh my! It took Dorothy courage to look behind the curtain in the city of Oz. She found the Wizard.

I recently took a peek behind the curtain. For me, more so than courage, it was curiosity and a desire to make a personal contribution which prompted me to attend the June 2011 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference, Patients Pathways Progress. This is the premier annual oncology conference in the world. It attracted 30,000 oncology professionals. There were hundreds of sessions ranging from the kickoff of a large keynote address to meetings with individual researchers who were peer-selected to display their ground breaking research.

I expected to find a few presentations on the biology of cancer and how our growing knowledge of genetic science would lead to targeted cancer therapies. As with Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, what I found behind the curtain surprised me. Unlike Dorothy, I found a set of true wizards comprised of oncologists, molecular biologists, epidemiologists, and statisticians who were willing to share their latest breakthroughs in the hopes of collectively and collaboratively finding cures to cancers.

Out of the dozens of presentations in which I participated, my personal favorite was the one delivered by Apostolia M. Tsimberidou, MD, PhD, titled Personalized Medicine in a Phase I Clinical Trials Program: The M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Initiative. The hypothesis of her study is, “Genetics and molecular analyses of patients’ cancers will identify biomarkers for targeted therapies that will improve clinical outcomes.” A phase I non-randomized trial within M. D. Anderson’s Investigational Cancer Therapeutics department was begun in 2007. The trial used tissue from patients referred for treatment to this trial to identify genetic mutations. If a genetic mutation was found and a drug regimen was available that targeted that specific mutation, the patient was enrolled in this phase I trial. Of the 1,144 patients whose tissue sample was analyzed for molecular aberrations, 40.2% were identified with one or more cancer-suspected genetic defects. This patient set was then placed on either a “Matched Therapy” or a “Therapy without Matching” regimen. Here’s the bottom line. The “matched therapy” group showed a 27% positive response rate whereas the “therapy without matching” group showed a 5% positive response rate. The conclusion, based on rigorous statistical methods, was that the matched therapy group faired far better than the non-matched group. By my way of thinking, more than 5 times better. The studies long term goals were twofold. First, over the next five year they hope to develop the capability to test all of M. D. Anderson’s 30,000 new patients a year for any genetic/molecular aberration in order to assign targeted therapy. Second, to perform research that proves efficacy so that the tests are reimbursed and become the standard of care.

This one presentation was one of hundreds during this five day conference focused on genetics and targeted therapies. This is what elevates my hope for a cure. Although targeted therapies are a relatively nascent science, the acceleration of discovery is shifting into high gear. As Dorothy said to Toto upon her arrival in Oz, “We’re not in Kansas anymore.”

Main Street Great Neck, 1912

A century ago, postcards were the favored social networking tool.   Because of this non-electronic format, we have a record of one of the main shopping areas in our community, as it appeared a hundred years ago.

Postcard view of Main Street, Great Neck, circa 1912.

This view of Middle Neck Road, called Main Street here, was printed in Germany for the Ninesling’s  Brothers Department Store, some time before 1912.  The card was addressed to Hasel L’Hommedieu of St. James, L. I. (in Smithtown).  By 2011, this card had found its way to Las Vegas.  The L'Hommedieus were also a prominent Great Neck family around this time, very active in the business, religious, and civic life of the community.

A sign painted on the H. Ninseling & Sons store, on the right, advertised dry goods, furniture, and sporting goods as well as laundry - phone number GreatNeck 134.  A date at the roof line indicates that the building was constructed in 1881.

The view looks north from Beach Road.  Just visible on the left is the canopy of the LeCluse Brothers General Store.  One of this store's owners, Egbert LeCluse, was a member of the Alert Fire Company, and later a justice of the peace.  He had the distinction of having the first telephone in town, GreatNeck 2, because he was instrumental in bringing phone service to Great Neck.   Calling GreatNeck 1 got you the local phone company office, which opened on September 28, 1899.   Mr. LeCluse is also said to have helped dig holes for Great Neck's power and telephone poles.  Telephone numbers from this period can be found in the Library’s collection of telephone books on microfilm.  Several of these books will soon be available online, through the library's website.

Egbert LeCluse - from the Great Neck News, December 10, 1937.

Behind the LeCluse store sat the colorful Kortlander & Rempe general store, which sold wine, liquor and groceries.  Behind Kortlander & Rempe was the Lincoln Market, phone number GreatNeck 81.

Horses and carts also appear in the background of this image.  The strangely small automobiles traveling on the minimally paved road were added after the photo was taken, probably to make the image seem more up-to-date.  If you look closely, you can see the "cut marks" around the images of the cars.

A very similar postcard in our collection offers a less colorful view of the same scene.  On first viewing, these images look the same, except for the automobiles.  A closer look reveals that the images were definitely taken at different times, as small details, like the people posing on the sidewalk, are not the same in each.

Postcard view of Main Street, Great Neck, circa 1909.

West side of Middle Neck Road at Beach Road, part of the area shown in the postcards above, in 1977. Photo by Mort Shapiro.

  
The 1912 postcard was purchased with money from the Risha Rosner Memorial Fund, which is made up of contributions donated in recognition of Risha Rosner, a dedicated, longtime Great Neck librarian and local history enthusiast who passed away in March of 2010.  To contribute to this fund, please call the Great Neck Library Reference Department at 516-466-8055, ext. 218.  Contributions are spent on adding items to the library's Local History Collection, and preserving, conserving and providing better access to the collection.

Kids Saltwater Sandal SALE

Sale in store now. All kids (infant, children & youth sizes) Saltwater Sandals 25% off. Were $65 now $49!!! Limited stock so get in fast. Sale ends when stock ends. Happy Winter x

Skate style

 

It's my oldest sons eighth birthday at the end of this month. He is besotted with skating and would do it every second of the day if he could. Dad is a skater and stands by the quote "most male fashion trends are started by skaters". I wasn't too sure about this comment, but since being exposed to skating in video, magazines, film and on the street, I have noticed there are a lot of stylish skaters.

Makr has designed a the luxury skate deck above. It's custom shaped, hand stained and cleared, and features leather risers. Each deck is individually numbered to insure you get a one of a kind piece, they're beautiful. 

Man About Town shot a a conceptually brilliant fashion video featuring Kilian Martin, one of the worlds best freestyle skaters. The music (Tommy Edwards classic tune “It’s All in the Game”), the fashion (Cerruti, Dior Homme, Giorgio Armani) and the skating, just makes me wonder if my husband is a little bit right...

Hot Olivia Munn Gallery of Pictures, Images and Wallpapers

Lisa Olivia Munn is a Hollywood actress, American model, American television personality and author. Earlier she was credited as Lisa Munn but since 2006, she has been using the name Olivia Munn both professionally and personally. So far she is very successful in her acting and modeling career.

Lisa Olivia Munn was born on July 3, 1980 in Oklahoma to a Chinese mother and German/Irish descent father. When Lisa olive Munn was two years old, her parents separated and her mother re-married a man in the United States Air Force. She was raised in Japan as her step-father was posted there. Later after her parents separation she moved back to United States. In 2004, she started her career as a reporter. Munn made her film debut in the movie Big Stan.

Full Name: Lisa Olivia Munn
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Years active: Since 2004

"Major Shift in War on Cancer"

This is the headline of an article in today's (June 6 2011) Wall Street Journal regarding the 2011 ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncologist) conference currently being held in Chicago at the McCormick Place conference center. There are about 25,000 attendees. Although traveling is a challenge for me, I am here as a patient research advocate volunteer and am honored and somewhat humbled to be one of those in attendance.

The WSJ article goes on to say, and I quote...

"New research is signaling a major shift in how cancer drugs are developed and patients are treated—offering the promise of personalized therapies that reach patients faster and are more effective than other medicines.

At the heart of the change: an emerging ability for researchers to use genetic information to match drugs to the biological drivers of tumors in individuals."

Here are some of the highlights from my perspective based on people I met, presentations attended, and the overall conference materials:

• About 30% of the several hundred large presentations are on a deeper understanding of the genetics within many different cancers... head & neck, lung, ovarian, breast, melanoma, etc. In sessions I attended there is a focus on finding combinations of mutant genes which lead to cancer (or a prediction of cancer) versus a prior focus of finding one single gene mutation. Finding these gene combinations is akin to finding a needle in a haystack, but large teams of medical doctors, molecular biologists, and other researchers across cancer institutions and international boundaries are attacking focused research and making progress.  
• I spent an afternoon meeting with drug company representatives. The larger companies like GSK, Abbot Laboratories, Genentech, Pfizer, etc have 1,000 square foot plus exhibition spaces. Most of them have a subset space for discussions on current research staffed by highly knowledgeable researchers and molecular biologists. This resource allocation confirmed for me the conference’s focus on finding cures through deeper genetic understanding.
• About 20% of the exhibition space was dedicated to companies specializing is what appeared to be the most current technologies and biology's available for genetic mutation detection. The cost of testing is falling rapidly. There are three primary testing techniques. Single gene testing costs begin at about one hundred dollars while testing an individual’s entire genome is about ten thousand dollars. Elapse time for gene testing from patient consent to results has been shortened, but is still a 3 to 4 week process.
• Researchers are beginning to test genetic defects across cancer types. This is the paradigm shift I wrote about in my prior blog entry. It is too early to know what fruit this will bear.
• Multi drug cocktails are resulting in evidence-based patient benefits.
• Genetic testing is still part art and part science. Testing methods and processes are being refined and as these refinements are put into practice better data will lead to quicker and more accurate results.
• Genetic mutations are complex. There are missing gene pieces and gene mismatches. Some gene mutations promote tumor grow while other gene mutations affect genes which, when working properly, inhibit tumor growth. The downstream effect of promotion and inhibiting have very different biological effects that can affect many (up to about 100) cell processes. This is one of the factors that make finding a cure, even after finding a mutation, so complex.

It is hard to summarize this annual gathering of the world’s leading oncologists. My takeaway is a true sense of breakthroughs, progress, and an excitement from the participants about winning the war on cancer. For some patients it will come too late; for others it will mean the difference between life and death.

Take care everyone.

Treasures from Bali

Bananas Batik Dream Catcher

Just a little sneak peak at a few of the treasures I bought in Bali, some are gifts but most are for me!
All of the items on this post are from a great little store in Seminyak called Bananas Batik. My good friend Michelle first told me about this amazing little shop and their dream catchers, then Briar from Sunday Collector did a great post on it. Definitely one not to miss.

Delicate wish bracelets

Miniature dream catcher necklace for a special little girl!