Jimmy Fund marks 60 years of giving – and gains
By Saul Wisnia
Each December since 1968, Dan Murphy Jr. has spent chilly days and nights standing on the front lawn of his Randolph, Mass., home selling Christmas trees and wreaths. He doesn't need the money, but he knows who does: the Jimmy Fund.
Murphy is now 85, and as a father of seven and a decorated World War II veteran, he has certainly earned a rest. But he would not think of stopping what has become a tradition in his small southern Massachusetts community, as well as a personal passion. He contributes all his proceeds to the Jimmy Fund to support Dana-Farber, in thanks for the lifesaving treatment given his 6-year-old son, Dan III, in the 1960s after he was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. Last year's proceeds were around $14,000; all told, Murphy figures he's raised nearly a quarter million dollars for Dana-Farber.
From the first days in 1948 when gifts to "Jimmy" poured in (top), to recent efforts like Christmas tree sales by Dan and Priscilla Murphy (above, with granddaughter), supporting the Jimmy Fund has become a New England tradition.
"The way I look at it, somebody who donated a buck or two may have helped my son survive, so I'm going to do the same thing," says Murphy, who is himself a cancer survivor treated at Dana-Farber. "My family knows that next to them, the Jimmy Fund is the biggest thing in my life."
Since its creation 60 years ago, the charity has played a big role in the lives of countless people in New England and beyond. It was started in 1948 to help the fledging Children's Cancer Research Foundation, formed a year before and run out of Sidney Farber, MD's tiny basement laboratory at Children's Hospital Boston. Pediatric cancer was then a virtual death sentence, but Farber was achieving promising results in his research on young leukemia patients.
"The way I look at it, somebody who donated a buck or two may have helped my son survive, so I'm going to do the same thing."
To secure him much-needed funding, the Variety Club of New England (made up of theater owners) arranged for a live radio broadcast from the bedside of one of Farber's 12-year-old patients at Children's. Listeners were so moved by the boy known only as "Jimmy" and his love of the Boston Braves baseball team – members of which surprised him by visiting his room to sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" – that within minutes of the May 22 broadcast, people arrived at the hospital with coins and dollar bills to contribute in "Jimmy's" name. After a summer of car washes, bake sales, and other events, more than $230,000 had been raised, and the Jimmy Fund was born.
Four years and about $1 million later, Farber's foundation – known today as Dana-Farber Cancer Institute – had a gleaming new four-story home, the Jimmy Fund Building. And as Dana-Farber has grown from those modest beginnings into a world-renowned facility for cancer research and treatment in both adults and children, its grassroots fundraising arm has grown along with it. In fiscal 2007, the Jimmy Fund contributed $58.98 million to Dana-Farber, representing 29.3 percent of the Institute's overall fundraising total. The nonprofit's 500-plus annual events now include everything from golfing, fishing, hiking, shopping, wine tasting, and dog walking fundraisers to larger events such as the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC) bike-a-thon, Boston Marathon® Jimmy Fund Walk, WEEI-NESN Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon, and the Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl® that involve thousands of participants and generate millions of dollars from around the globe.
Above left, cyclists tackle the Pan-Massachusetts Challenge to support Dana-Farber; at right, a young ice cream fan keeps cool at the Jimmy Fund Scooper Bowl, held annually in downtown Boston.
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