Leisure Time Well-Spent : City of Hope’s Auxiliary in Camarillo Brings In $200,000 Annually

Dozens of respected hospitals lie closer to Camarillo than the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte. And plenty of other nonprofit organizations are badly in need of donations.

But one of the most popular fund-raising groups in Camarillo’s Leisure Village is the auxiliary for the City of Hope, located 75 miles east of Camarillo.

With about 850 members, the Camarillo chapter of City of Hope is widely considered the largest charity based in the retirement village, and has more members than any of the 500 City of Hope auxiliaries around the country, according to group members and hospital officials.

“It’s amazing,” said Linda Fried, an auxiliary development director of the hospital.

The Camarillo chapter is not only big, it is also productive.

The chapter brings in $200,000 each year for the hospital, the ninth largest contribution from the City of Hope’s auxiliaries.

Some auxiliaries, such as those in Palm Springs or Beverly Hills, can raise a few hundred thousand dollars in one night by holding a gala ball for wealthy patrons, Fried said.

But the Camarillo chapter raises money the hard way, a dollar at a time.

Auxiliary members regularly sponsor bingo games; organize fashion shows, holiday bazaars and bike-a-thons, and even stand holding cans and soliciting cash donations in front of post offices, swap meets and supermarkets.

Founded just 13 years ago, the Camarillo chapter has grown to its present size partly because many people who raised money for City of Hope in other areas retired to Leisure Village and joined the local auxiliary, chapter President Don Seidler said.

While some of the local auxiliary’s 850 members live in Ventura and Thousand Oaks, about 700 reside in Camarillo, mostly in Leisure Village.

One of the chapter’s most active members is Hildi Lustig, who began raising money for the research hospital 50 years ago when a young woman Lustig knew died of cancer.

“I was so deeply touched and affected that someone could die so early,” Lustig said. “I felt something should be done.”

Since that time, Lustig’s daughter died at age 22 from a heart condition. Her husband succumbed to cancer. And just two weeks ago, her 48-year-old son died of AIDS.

Lustig said her grief has never stopped her from continuing to raise money for City of Hope. “It just makes me work that much harder.”

Some other members of the Camarillo chapter also said they have funneled grief from the deaths of family members into fund-raising work for the Duarte medical center.

“It’s a way of fighting back,” said Milford Eisenberg, whose first wife died of lung cancer. “It gives you a feeling you’re doing something to fight the enemy.”

The City of Hope is one of the nation’s 55 cancer treatment and research centers designated by the National Cancer Institute.

Milford Eisenberg’s second wife, Lee Eisenberg, began raising money for City of Hope in her hometown of Indianapolis before she moved to Leisure Village in 1980.

Like many others in the Camarillo auxiliary, she said she has always been impressed by the hospital’s practice of accepting patients regardless of their ability to pay.

“It’s non-sectarian and you don’t have to have loads of money to get in there,” Lee Eisenberg said. “They don’t turn anybody down.”

Founded during the 1912 tuberculosis epidemic in Los Angeles, City of Hope began as a sanitarium for tuberculosis patients that was primarily funded by Los Angeles unions, hospital officials said.

Eventually, City of Hope’s individual supporters banded together into fund-raising auxiliaries.

And today, auxiliaries such as the Camarillo chapter raise $15 million to $20 million a year to support the hospital. “They are our bread and butter,” said Laurel DiBrog, a City of Hope spokeswoman.

Because of the donor support, the medical center has been able to stick to its original philosophy of not turning away patients who can not afford treatment.

Leisure Village resident Sylvia Winderbaum said she has been most impressed by the hospital’s emphasis on helping patients maintain a respectable quality of life, no matter how close they are to dying.

As part of this philosophy, for example, City of Hope social workers meet with every patient and are available to meet with patients’ families, DiBrog said.

When she speaks at City of Hope luncheons or other events, Winderbaum said she tells how her father and mother died of cancer. Winderbaum’s mother died at a Los Angeles hospital, where she said the care was barely adequate, while her father went to City of Hope.

“My father was treated at the City of Hope as though he were king of England,” she says. “He died with dignity.”

But Winderbaum focuses on the future, believing that City of Hope researchers may find a cure for cancer by the time her two grandchildren are grown.

“Whatever time I have left, I want to help to try to cure cancer,” she said. “If I have any extra money, I give it to the City of Hope.”

Winderbaum said she just tries not to worry about her own health.

“I pretend I’m not worried about cancer,” she said. But “of course, everyone our age is. Everyone has it in the back of their minds.”