Cancer Patients

BURBANK ? Two distinct religious traditions with a history of partnership in Burbank came together on Saturday for a benefit concert to raise money for a Macedonian woman who has liver cancer. St. Jude's Episcopal Church and Temple Beth Emet have fostered a cooperative relationship since Temple Beth appealed to St. Jude's for a place to celebrate some special religious ceremonies, St. Jude's Rector, Father Chuck Mitchell, said "Temple Beth was looking for a place to have high holy days," he said.

Hospitals to receive charity proceeds Safeway Inc. announced last week its 2006 Breast Cancer Awareness Campaign. The Safeway Foundation has raised nearly $16 million for breast-cancer charities. Proceeds will be distributed to health organizations, including Glendale Adventist Medical Center and Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, that conduct research or provide services and treatment for breast-cancer patients. Disney looks to markets in India The Burbank-based Walt Disney Co. has contracted with an company in New Delhi, India, in order to reach out to fast-growing south Asian markets.

COMMUNITY YMCA HAS ONE-MILE FAMILY WALK Burbank Community YMCA kicked off America on the Move Week by hosting a one-mile family walk, ?Walk This Way,? through Downtown Burbank on Sept. 20, starting at the Burbank Community YMCA, 321 E. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank. Participants were greeted by YMCA staff at 8 a.m. as they gathered in the YMCA?s parking lot. Before the start of the free event, each participant received an ?America on the Move? T-shirt, bottle of water and walking guide.

Rosette Gonzales Cancer patients at City of Hope will celebrate Armenian Christmas in a matter of speaking this Thursday thanks to the domestic talents of members of St. Peter Armenian Church Youth Ministries Center. Congregation members knitted, sewed and crocheted more than 30 blankets to give to cancer patients as a gesture of love, said Father Vazken Movsesian of St. Peter Armenian Church Youth Ministries Center. The blanket project is part of the church's youth ministry, "In His Shoes," and is unique to the parish because the congregation is extending holiday charity beyond the Armenian community, Movsesian said.

Molly Shore Dan Linegar has been cancer-free for five years. He is one of the fortunate people who survived esophageal cancer, a particularly vicious form of the disease that typically strikes middle-age white men, and offers no better than a 20% survival rate. Linegar, 57, who recently lost a friend to the same type of cancer and thinks he is about to lose another one, will join community members at a rally Wednesday night to plan Burbank's first Relay for Life, a 24-hour festival to raise cancer awareness.

Members of the Burbank Noon Kiwanis and Kiwanis For Fun have dance fever. Both clubs have been working hard in coordination with BCR — A Place to Grow, formerly Burbank Center for the Retarded, to help bring to Burbank the Infinite Dreams program. Infinite Dreams is a groundbreaking dance program offered by the Bethune Theatredanse Company for people with developmental and physical disabilities. At a special presentation, Burbank Noon Kiwanis Club Second Vice President JodiLyn Renaud presented a check to Zina Bethune, artistic director of Bethune Theatredanse and Infinite Dreams, and Maria DiLiberto, program supervisor of BCR to support dance classes for disabled individuals of BCR to be held at the Burbank Community YMCA where Renaud is senior program director.

Irma Lemus MAGNOLIA PARK -- Elizabeth Acosta wants to become a heart surgeon because she figures that's how she can make the greatest difference for the most people. Until then she's content with teaching younger students how to read. The Providence High School senior was the first student to be honored as an "Angel of the Year" Thursday when she was recognized for her volunteer work with children at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School. Established in 1995 by community business owners, the Angel of the Year awards are given annually to honor volunteers who help needy people and service organizations in the communities of Burbank, North Hollywood, Toluca Lake and Universal City.

Thursday marked the groundbreaking of the Roy and Patricia Disney Cancer Center at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center. The cancer center will be a 55,000-square-foot, four-story building and the third structure in a soon-to-be constructed medical plaza. The cancer center will be a part of Providence St. Joseph Medical Center, unlike the other two buildings in the medical plaza. Cancer services at the hospital are currently spread out in a way that sometimes has patients going from one side of the hospital to another in the same day to visit different specialists, said hospital spokesperson Dan Boyle.

Mark R. Madler Within one minute of being given a soft-serve ice cream cone, Warner Bros. Studios firefighter Joe Segreto had finished it, cone and all, and sat back to wait for his two teammates to down their quickly melting cones. Segreto's team came out the eventual winner in an ice cream eating contest on a hot Tuesday against three members of the Burbank Fire Department in which both teams had money donated in their names to the charity of their choice.