Giving Inspired by Grief

Area Families Create Lasting Memorials in Charity To Loved Ones Who Have Died of Disease

Had Ashley Fister Cole lived, there never would have been a charity golf tournament in her honor. Nor would nearly 250 people have turned out for a movie benefit, held by a nonprofit foundation named for her, to raise money for cancer research.

Instead, Ashley Cole would have been a kindergarten teacher and perhaps a mother, living with her husband, Brian Cole, in their Fairfax home.

But when she was 28, Ashley died of melanoma, a virulent form of skin cancer. Her death in 2002 led her husband and family to launch the Ashley Fister Cole Foundation, which on Sept. 16 will hold its third annual golf tournament, its major fundraiser of the year. So far, the foundation has collected more than $30,000 for cancer research.

"We just knew we wanted to give something back" to melanoma researchers and cancer survivors who helped Ashley fight the disease, said Brian Cole, 35.

The Ashley Fister Cole Foundation is one of a growing number of Fairfax area organizations that have been started by family members to fund research or help others suffering from a disease that killed a loved one. People have always donated money to charities following the death of a close relative, friend or neighbor. But the establishment of nonprofit foundations with year-round activities has taken such giving to a new level, as families devote time and effort to setting up an organization with long-term goals.

No one keeps track of the number of these foundations, so it is impossible to ascertain how many charities in Fairfax -- or anywhere else -- have been established in the name of a deceased person to benefit others. But the groups are sprouting up all the time.

On Saturday, a group of Northern Virginia residents will hold a charity golf tournament at the Westfields Golf Club in Clifton in memory of Pam McDonald, a 57-year-old Oakton mother of two who died of ovarian cancer in 2002. Family members and friends set up the Pam McDonald Fund to direct their grief and energy toward raising money to help ovarian cancer patients pay their medical bills and support research on the disease.

Officials at the Johns Hopkins Ovarian Cancer Center of Excellence recently told the McDonald Fund that they had identified two patients to receive contributions from the organization. Money will also go to the Cancer Research and Prevention Foundation.

John Guandolo of Vienna has ambitious plans for his organization, Destination Cure, a nonprofit that raises money for multiple sclerosis research in memory of his mother, Evelyn M. Guandolo. She battled MS for more than 30 years before she died in 2000 at age 62.

In the last two years, Destination Cure has taken in about $200,000 from individuals who have raised money running in road races, holding bake sales -- even hosting games of bunco, a game played with dice, said Guandolo.

"We allow people to do anything," said Guandolo, 39. "You use your imagination and you initiate."

Guandolo, a former Marine who works for the U.S. Department of Justice, and his friends have run marathons and competed in triathlons, raising money by soliciting pledges from donors. The group has gathered 46 people -- its largest team -- to run in the Marine Corps marathon on Oct. 30.