Painting for Cures to Host Golf Tournament

Sometimes when the timing is right and all the components are there, something great can happen.

That was certainly the case with Merokeans Jonathan Donahue and his friends Rob Catalfomo and his sister in-law Amy Catalfomo and Painting for Cures was born in 2008.

"One day we were just talking and we decided that we wanted to do something good and we just ran with this idea," said Donohue. "I wanted to do something for children and Rob is an artist so we chose this idea of painting," he said.

But the group doesn't just paint for a cure. Done in their spare time, the main mission of the foundation is not only to provide the arts and crafters for hospitalized children, and work with children's hospitals, provide all the materials for arts and crafts projects, but most of the time, the group leads the crafts as well.

"We have done a lot with The Kravis children's hospital at Mount Sinai and have gone to Cohen Children's Hospital. At Mount Sinai, we can go there and do the events and we don't have any technical contact with the children; they have a closed circuit interactive television and we can hold the class over television while the kids do the crafts in their rooms.  We are also talking to Saint Mary's Healthcare system for children to hold an event this year," Donohue said.

Right now, the group is also working on a closure support program. This program will allow the foundation to provide a grant of up to $1,000 to families for burial costs. 

In order to help continue to support the foundation and its works, the group sets up a number of fundraisers during the year. They have had a chicken-wing eating contest, which it will be holding again, but this year they will also be holding a golf outing on August 13.  The outing will take place at Lido Beach Gold Club and registration is $135 per golfer. You can register for the event online at www.paintingforcures.org

Although there have been struggles - not being able to get into some hospitals because of contagious disease epidemics, for one - but watching the foundation grow has been something that Donohue said he is the most proud of.

"It's good. We love when we do the art projects, it's great to see the happiness that we bring and we enjoy planning and fundraising events. We get a lot of satisfaction about what we do, we think that this can grow to be something huge - any non-profit had to start at a small little point, and right now, we are building up our brand," Donohue said.

For more information on Painting for Cures or the gold tournament, contact Donohue at J.Donohue@paintingforcures.org.