OUR LAGUNA: Relaying a need for 24-hour leaders

Everybody in Laguna Beach knows someone who has or will have cancer.

Count to three if you are a woman, count to two if you are a man — and include yourself. One of every three women and one of every two men will be diagnosed with cancer, according to American Cancer Society spokeswoman Ellen Dever.

But it’s not statistics that count. What counts are the people who have cancer, who have endured it and won, and those who have lost. It is their loved ones who have shared the pain.

And it is the funds raised at such events as the 24-hour Laguna Beach Relay for Life and how those funds are spent to ease the pain, seek a cure and educate the public on early detection of this horrid disease that maims and steals lives that should be lived more fully. That really counts.

“Why 24 hours? Because cancer never sleeps,” Dever said.

Funds are raised by team registration fees; participants’ solicitations, which are credited to the team; and sponsorships — $500 and up. Any contributions, including time, are welcome. Community leaders are needed to help plan the 2008 event. The next committee meeting will be at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Wells Fargo Bank, 260 Ocean Ave.

“An event chair is the most pressing need,” Dever said.

The relay is set for Aug. 22 and 23 at El Morro School.

Teams of 10 to 15 people will camp out at the school and take turns at circling the track for 24 hours — walking, jogging or running. No experience needed.

It is not a race.

“We celebrate our community survivors — those who have ever heard the words, ‘you have cancer’ — and their caregivers with our first lap,” Dever said. “It is to celebrate their lives and the battle they have fought and those who helped them along the way.

“We remember those who have lost their battle, with a candlelight ceremony called the Luminaria. Decorated bags containing candles light the way as we continue our walk into the night.”

The next morning, at the Fight Back Ceremony, participants pledge to do just one thing, whether it is to get a mammogram, a colonoscopy, to stop smoking or even become a relay volunteer, to battle the disease that has taken too many, too soon.

“Anything people can do and be aware of the risks and not bury their heads in the sand is acting in a responsible way and that includes getting clinical examinations and self-examinations,” Trudy Josephson said.

Josephson, who was diagnosed with breast cancer 18 years ago, battles the disease with humor — a motivational presentation titled “When life hands you lemons, stick them in your bra.”

“When I hear of anyone with lung cancer, I reach out to them,” said Planning Commissioner Anne Johnson, a non-smoker, who was stricken with lung cancer almost 20 years ago.

“Treatment, survivor rates and early detection are so much better now,” Johnson said.

She recommends a cat scan for detecting lung cancer, calling it the gold standard.

How can you help?

Become a relay team captain like City Clerk Martha Anderson, who will head up the City Hall team, be on a team or the planning committee.

Interested? Join Dever at 6 p.m. March 19 at the Laguna Beach Library, 363 Glenneyre St., for a free presentation on the relay. For more information, call Dever at (949) 567-0603 or (949) 892-0334.

HENRY GOES PLATINUM

Laguna Beach maverick Eleanor Henry, known for her outspoken opposition to war, recent Republican presidents and paying the same rate for water as owners of bigger homes, has a long history with the Girl Scouts of America.

Henry will be presented with her Platinum Pin April 18 at the Disneyland Hotel, declining to state how many years that represents.

“I joined when I was 2,” said Henry, who has no patience with labels, including age. “I am a life scout, so I don’t have to remember to pay dues every year.”

There were no Brownies or Daisy Troops when she joined the scouts in Wilmar, a little area between Monterey Park and Alhambra, where she was born.

She moved to Pasadena in her teens and joined a Mariners Scout Ship — as sea-worthy Girl Scout troops are called.

Henry went inactive for several years, but maintained her membership.

She became active again as a troop leader when her daughter was old enough to join the Brownies.

The Henrys moved to Laguna in 1961.

“There were troops, but no leaders,” Henry said.

She took on leadership of the seventh and eighth grade troop, called cadets.

“It was interesting,” Henry said. “I took them camping and I didn’t know much about it, so I learned a lot myself.

“The best time I ever had was in the cadets. I still see girls from the troop that laugh about things like digging a latrine at Camp Elizabeth Dolph in Aliso Canyon and cook-outs without pots.

“When my daughter entered high school, she went into a senior troop, which happened to be a mariners. They wanted me to be the leader, but I thought my daughter should experience a different leader.”

Henry spent considerable time recruiting leaders.

“They came and went,” Henry said. “We had a couple that felt they had had enough. I didn’t think that was a good attitude.

“There were troops in Newport, but the girls here said, ‘We are Laguna.’”

However, Henry did become a board member of the Newport Girl Scouts Council, representing Laguna. She also helped train camping and troop leaders.

Henry’s three granddaughters also joined the scouts, enjoying new programs.

“What the Girl Scouts have over the Boy Scouts is they evolve,” Henry said.

In addition to scouting, protesting at nuclear test sites and speaking out any perceived injustice or neglect, Henry also is a diligent member of the Main Beach Peace Vigil and the Beautification Council and an exhibitor at the Sawdust Festival.

OUR LAGUNA is a regular feature of the Laguna Beach Coastline Pilot. Contributions are welcomed. Write to Barbara Diamond, P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, 92652; hand-deliver to Suite 22 in the Lumberyard, 384 Forest Ave.; call (949) 494-4321 or fax (949) 494-8979.