They do it for Samantha

MONROE — The Third Thursday group was an informal social club until a member’s daughter was diagnosed with cancer.

Wining, dining and sharing the joys and travails of life at middle age was the focus of the group of Monroe and Snoho­mish women in their 40s to 60s.

Then Kristine Herman let her friends in the social group know in September that her 15-year-old daughter Samantha had a tumor on the left lobe of her liver and that medical insurance wasn’t going to cover the costs of treatment, transplant and recovery.

E-mails flew among the Third Thursday members. What could they do to help?

“Everybody wanted to do something,” club member Kathy Pugh said. “But putting on a fundraiser was something that was new to most of us.”

Susan Hagbrandt and Sheryl Owens, friends since elementary school in Monroe, suggested that the group organize a benefit dance and raffle. The Third Thursday women jumped in with great enthusiasm, Pugh said.

“It’s pulled us together in a different way and injected a different dynamic that makes the group more valuable,” Pugh said. “It causes us to think outside of ourselves.”

Not that this busy group of career women, wives, mothers, retirees and friends was ever in any way selfish, Pugh said. As a group, the Third Thursday women had contributed to Volunteers of America each Christmas for many years.

“The women are all forward-thinking, self-sufficient and interesting. But now we’ve reached a point in our lives where we want to give back to our community,” Pugh said. “This is a personal cause that makes it very rewarding.”

The Third Thursday group still enjoys getting together to eat out once a month. But now the club has a mission, Pugh said.

On a recent rainy night on Lord’s Hill, Susan Hangbrandt’s dining room table was piled high with raffle and event admission tickets, fliers, posters, lists of prize donations, work sign-up sheets and maps of a school gym.

Decisions had to be made about liability insurance and crowd control. Volunteers had to be scheduled for set-up and tear-down. And thank-you notes needed to be written for the use of the school gym and the donation of all the raffle items, which include coffee, massages and a hot-air balloon ride.

The Third Thursday women crowded around, working hard on plans for the dance, which they hope will raise as much as $7,000 for the Samantha Herman Medical Fund at Bank of America.

“The fundraiser is an act of love for a friend,” Hagbrandt said.

The dance, scheduled for Saturday, has a Valentine’s theme, and the group’s sweetheart is Samantha.

In the middle of the group’s discussion, Kristine and Samantha Herman dropped by to say hello.

Samantha is undergoing chemotherapy and is on a waiting list to receive a liver transplant.

In the meantime, the Monroe High School sophomore, determined to graduate with her class, is back at school after missing fall semester.

“This dance and everything is kind of overwhelming,” Samantha said. “My mom has good friends and it’s so nice that they are doing this.”

Kristine Herman agrees.

“Our family is very grateful to these ladies and the community for all the support. These women are extraordinary, funny, loving and caring, and that helps us so much,” Herman said. “It’s been a rocky road, but Sam is a tough cookie. We do a lot of praying and we practice positive thinking.”

Armed with that positive attitude and wearing Valentine-red blouses, the Third Thursday women will be out in force Saturday for the dance and raffle.

Along with Herman, Hagbrandt, Owens and Pugh, the Third Thursday group includes Cheri Thompson, Cheri Black, Terri Roberts, Lori Hartz, Anna Negaard, Jan Federico, Cheryl Fleury, Dawn Fierro, Roxanne Camp, Norma Cook, Suzanne Behla, Jan Torgerson, Sharon Maher, Jeanne Tjolker and Angela Fowler.

Hans Hagbrandt and Jenn McReynolds, along with the Key Club and Honor Society at Monroe High School, also are helping with the benefit dance. And the bands Slingshot and JoyRide are donating their performances.

Owens said the Third Thursday group has been pleased with how well the benefit and dance have come together.

“And now we’re looking forward to doing more fundraisers,” she said.

Reporter Gale Fiege: 425-339-3427 or gfiege@heraldnet.com.

Benefit for a sweetheart

Dancing for Samantha, a dance-and-raffle fundraiser to benefit the Samantha Herman Medical Fund at Bank of America, is set for 6 to 11 p.m. Saturday at Park Place Middle School, 1408 W. Main St., Monroe. The bands Slingshot and JoyRide are scheduled to perform. Tickets are $10 at the door. Samantha is a Monroe High School student who has liver cancer.