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Yacht Club fund-raiser aims to help sink cancer

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When members of Chagrin Lagoons Yacht Club in Eastlake discovered seven years ago that several of their members had been battling breast cancer, they held a small dinner that raised $1,400 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

The Susan G. Komen Foundation promotes awareness to prevent breast cancer.

The dinner, put on by what became known as Boaters for a Cure,  became an annual event.

Last year, the group raised a record-breaking $17,000.

Boaters for a Cure hopes to break that record at its Sixth Annual Dinner for a Cure at 6:30 p.m. April 9 at the American

Legion hall in Eastlake.

"We would always like to do better than the year before," said founding member Barb Bonfanti, wife of Raspberries drummer Jim Bonfanti.

"The goal is to contribute as much as we can."

The annual event has become so popular that it has outgrown space at the yacht club.

"This is the first year it's not at the yacht club," Bonfanti said. "We were having to do two seatings to accommodate everyone, and the people at the first seating would miss all the action later.

"This year, we can accommodate everyone."

All food served at the event is homemade, Bonfanti said.

This year's menu features chicken paprikash ($15), cheese lasagna ($15), meat  lasagna ($15) and steak ($20). Raffles will be held through- out the evening.

A live auction hosted by WDOK-FM 102.1 radio personality Nancy Alden and WEWS- TV 5 weather personality MikeStone will follow dinner.

Chris Halas, also a founding member of Boaters for a Cure, said the group hopes to give at least $10,000 to the Susan G. Komen Foundation this year.

Any additional funds will go to cancer support groups.

Halas said Boaters for a Cure is a corporatre sponsor of the Susan G. Komen Foundations's Race for the Cure held in the fall.