Firms join forces for fight against breast cancer

Real Estate Weekly, Nov 26, 2008

To bolster efforts of The Cure Breast Cancer Foundation (CBCF), New Jersey-based Value Companies has announced that it is partnering with several area homebuilders and Valley National Bank to help spread information and cultivate financial support for breast cancer research.

"We want to raise awareness and funds so that breast cancer will soon be something women no longer have to worry about," said Value Companies president Andrew Abramson.

Finding a cure for breast cancer is a cause near and dear to Abramson, whose wife Lisa has battled the disease. Lisa's mother, Vivian Bombardieri, succumbed to breast cancer just prior to Lisa's diagnosis, three years ago.

"This is personal to me," Mr. Abramson explained, "but I know that this disease also affects hundreds of thousands of people who suffer from it, as well as heir loved ones, each year."

Carly Abramson, his youngest daughter, was the inspiration for creating CBCF after she--at age 12 when her mother was first diagnosed--made Lisa a beaded key ring as a comforting gift. Carly subsequently made and sold 700 similar key rings as a fundraiser with the help of family and friends.

By the end of 2007, Carly had raised and donated $10,000 to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center where her mother has been a patient. But Carly wasn't finished with the fight to eradicate breast cancer, and in December 2007 she and her father founded CBCF.

"CBCF is a 501(c)3 non profit organization dedicated to raising funds for Sloan-Kettering," Mr. Abramson stated. "As a family, we are very grateful that Lisa received such wonderful attention there."

Value Companies is now eliciting the help of New Jersey-based homebuilders, Sterling Properties, Millennium Homes and Birchwood Associates, as well as Valley National Bank, to help raise money for CBCF.

These companies have established collection canisters at their more than 300 locations across New Jersey, including the sales and leasing centers of the homebuilders' many communities and Valley National Bank's branch locations.

Donations are being accepted throughout the month of October and all proceeds are transferred by CBCF to Manhattan based Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, which provides comprehensive patient care services and conducts ongoing lifesaving cancer research.