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Breast Cancer Awareness Month: October 2008

October 1
Pouring in donations

State Street Grill to host Celebrity Bar Nites on Mondays in October to benefit American Cancer Society

By Shelby Fisk sfisk@theabingtonjournal.com
Reporter/Photographer

CLARKS SUMMIT- Celebrity Bar Nite, taking place every Monday in October for Breast Cancer Month, at State Street Grill began last year. Tom Hill, owner of State Street Grill, approached Timmie Ott, in her 17th year of volunteering with the American Cancer Society, with a question.

Timmie Ott, organizer, with State Street Grill employees who will be participating in Celebrity Bartenders Nites during the month of October. From left, are: Timmie Ott, Melissa Blase, Kena Flomar, Kristina Jones and Gil Flores.

Abington Journal Photo/Shelby Fisk

Ott said, “Tom, a longtime friend, knows I work with the Society. He came up and said he wanted to do something for Breast Cancer Month and he said, ‘What can we do?’”

“I thought it (Celebrity Bar Nite) was going to be one Monday night,” Ott said, about the events which will now take place every Monday in October.

Ott said that Hill worked on a celebrity bartending event in South Beach, FL, when he worked there in the past. Ott said that Hill also lost a grandmother and aunt to breast cancer. “So he’s also doing it in their honor,” Ott said. Ott, a nurse for 40 years, has worked with Asera Care Hospice for 12 years and has been in the hospice field for 25 years.

Celebrity Bar Nite will take place on Monday, October 6, 13, 20 and 27, running from 7 to 10 p.m. “So, this is what is really fun,” Ott said. “Celebrities” will be bartending during these times. “Bartenders are people who work in our community, very committed to the cause, that have lots of friends,” Ott said. “That’s what my celebrities are.”

Drink tickets will be available at State Street Grill at the event or those who attend can bring drink tickets they received previously from participants or organizers. With each ticket, a person receives either a pink cosmopolitan or a draft beer of choice, free, courtesy of State Street Grill. There will be jars for tips at the bar. The money from the jars will be donated to the American Cancer Society.

“People are very generous. We raised $5,400 last year,” Ott said. “Our community is just very, very supportive of this cause and I don’t think there are many of us here that haven’t had someone that was affected with this disease.”

During the Celebrity Bar Nite, event baskets will be raffled off and 50/50s will take place.

Bartenders for the Monday nights are as follows: Oct. 6, Lackawanna Ambulance and Community Life Support Ambulance; Oct. 13, Sanderson State Street and the band Grace’s Downfall will be performing; Oct. 20, Friends Fighting Cancer. And on Oct. 27, four physicians -- Dr. Carmen Brutico, Dr. Frank Moro, Dr. Jim Sundheim and Dr. Thomas Samuelsen -- will bartend.

“They really get into it,” Ott said about those who will be bartending.

All in all, Ott said that she hopes this year will be “bigger and better spreading more awareness.”

Funds raised will go directly to the American Cancer Society, whose mission is “dedicated to helping persons who face cancer.” For information on the American Cancer Society, visit www.cancer.org or call 1-800-ACS-2345.

For more information on Celebrity Bar Nite, running every Monday in October, State Street Grill can be reached at 585-5590.