Galloway Resident Making Progress on National Bill

Thanks to a Galloway Township local, there may soon be a national day of recognition for charities of all types.

Following a meeting with state Sen. Jeff Van Drew Monday night, Ava Holly Lewis, head of 4-A Star and board member of the Galloway Township Business Association, told Galloway Patch a bill is being prepared for a vote that would designate May 20 of every year as an “All Health Causes Day.”

According to Lewis, bill SJR55 already has the support of 10 senators.

“If anyone wants to help, they can e-mail Sen. Loretta Weinberg at senweinberg@njleg.org in support of SJR55,” Lewis wrote in an e-mail. “We need all the e-mails to her we can get.”

The cause has developed quickly. There are already local, county and state proclamations recognizing May 20 as a day “where all charities can be recognized, whether they’re big or small,” Lewis said.

“It’s a national day of causes. It’s a day where charities can go out and support anything they want.”

Once Mayor Keith Hartman issued the local proclamation, Atlantic County Freeholder Frank Giordano helped issue the county proclamation and Congressman Frank LoBiondo helped the issue receive state recognition, Van Drew helped Lewis get to Washington to make her case on the national stage.

“There’s a few more things that need to be done to get it recognized on the national level,” Lewis said. “One of the things they told me is that I should watch the name of it. They told me I should be more specific so that not just anyone with a cause can participate.”

Health is the key to the cause, as Lewis’ inspiration is her mother, who died of brain cancer. May 20 was her birthday.

“The last time I saw her was on my birthday,” Lewis said. “She passed away two years ago. We lost my father later that year.”

It was her father who was sick, and her mother was watching after him. No one was even aware Lewis’ mother was sick.

“She woke up and fell on the floor one day, and she was gone,” Lewis said. “I feel cheated that she went so quickly without ever being sick a day in her life.”

Her mother had a brain tumor on the inside of her brain, which are harder to detect and do more damage than tumors that grow on the outside. Her mother’s passing came as a shock.

Both her parents were living in Florida at the time. Lewis went to see them for her birthday in February. Her father passed away later that year, and Lewis began thinking about what she could do to honor their memories.

Lewis once met Kareem Abdul Jabbar in person, and one night after her parents passed away, she saw him on TV fighting against leukemia. That’s when she realized, “one person can make a difference.”

“I went to a Race for Hope as an extra hand,” Lewis said. “There were thousands of people there. Some of them were living with cancer and some of them were there for people who have died. It was an enlightening experience.”

Lewis met with three executives from the National Brain Cancer Society last year. She took them to AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center to witness some of the advances in brain surgery the center has made.

“We need to find some way to cure these things,” Lewis said. “So many people have brain tumors, and from working on this cause, I’ve learned there are so many more types of brain tumors and brain cancer than I ever thought.”

It’s this education that helped Lewis arrive at the decision to include other illnesses in her cause.

“People will come if other charities are involved,” Lewis said. “We can all come together and learn about each other. And then if we could have an official title in front of it, that would be cool.”

And now, she’s close to making this a nationally recognized “cool thing,” complete with a hot dog on a purple bun logo.

Her dad worked for the original Nathan’s Hot Dogs, while her mom’s favorite color was purple.

If she has her way, soon, those two things could combine for a national symbol.