Claudia Mayer Center Invites Friends, Supporters to Tea

By Missy Zane



It started in 2001 as a way to recognize and thank volunteers. But since, the Claudia Mayer Cancer Resource and Image Center's elegant Victorian Tea has grown both in size and purpose.

This year's tea, scheduled for May 2 from 3-7 p.m., will move to an expansive venue at Turf Valley Resort and Conference Center. With room for more guests, organizers hope the event will raise even more than last year's $10,000 to benefit the center.

In addition to recognizing the volunteers, most of whom own, or work at, some of major salons and spas in Howard County, "the purpose of the tea is to help the center remain financially viable," said Co-Chair Tina Broccolino, who has worked alongside Co-Chairs Phyllis Clark and Sharon Thompson and more than two dozen friends for months to make the fundraiser a success.

The center, which opened in 1998, provides two very different services under one roof. Its comfortable, home-like library boasts more than 600 books, videos and pamphlets about cancer, as well as Internet access for online research. Just steps away, cancer patients receive pampering service in a fully equipped salon complete with wigs and accessories.

Broccolino, who is one of the center's founders, thinks back to its origins. She recalls going into beauty salons and seeing customers who were obviously cancer patients.

"There was no private place to help people who were losing their hair," she said. "They'd go into a salon and feel self-conscious about their appearance. I thought, 'that's not right.' "

It took more than a year for Broccolino's dream of providing a comfortable, private place where cancer patients would find help for the damage which chemotherapy and other treatments cause to hair and skin to come true.

"We did a lot of research," Broccolino said. "We realized we were opening a beauty salon. But what did we know about beauty salons? We had to learn about combs, brushes, wigs. — It was a full-time job."

At the same time, former Columbia Flier and Howard County Times deputy editor Lynne Salisbury was working on opening a lending library where cancer patients could get all the information they needed about the disease.

Howard County General Hospital CEO Vic Broccolino, who is Tina's husband, suggested combining the image center and library into one facility. The result was a comfortable, welcoming building on Cedar Lane near the hospital.

Vic Broccolino said the founders wanted the center "to feel like a living room. These people have gone through so much. Tina and Lynne wanted to make it very comfortable, like a family home."

The beauticians and aestheticians volunteer their time in the salon. "It's very private. It's not like going to a regular beauty salon," Broccolino said. "The beauticians and aestheticians take a lot of their own time working for free, in many cases, with the clients."

This year's tea will honor about 30 salon volunteers. There will also be a presentation of fashions by Octavia, etc., Paolo Vista Fine Menswear and The Growing Up Shoppe, vendors selling jewelry and other accessories and, of course, the tea, which will feature scones, tea sandwiches and salads.

In addition, there will be special thank-you gifts for guests who become Friends of the Center by donating $1,000 or more to the Center.

The center is a service of Howard County General Hospital and is named for Claudia Mayer, who lost her battle with breast cancer just before the center opened.

Tickets to the tea are $40. For information, call 410-740-7840.