TEMECULA: Michelle's Place donor throws down fundraising gauntlet

Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/temecula/temecula-michelle-s-place-don...

A mystery donor has pledged to donate $25,000 to an endowment fund that was set up recently with the 10th anniversary of Michelle's Place, a nonprofit breast cancer resource center in Temecula.

And that donor has issued a challenge to all other philanthropists in the area.

He ---- nonprofit officials let that detail slip ---- is asking others to match his donation before the end of 2011.

And if people want to donate more, that's OK, too, said Carole Conrad, a member of the nonprofit's board.

"Oh yes. We'd be happy if they go over," she said.

The nonprofit created the endowment to help it keep its doors open for years to come, said Conrad and the nonprofit's founder, Marilyn Watson, during an interview at the center.

The money raised ---- however much is collected before the end of the year ---- will be placed in the endowment and interest will be used to help the center's operations.

"We want to be here 10 years from now ---- 20 years from now," Conrad said.

The nonprofit was founded in November 2001 after Watson's daughter, Michelle Watson, died of breast cancer at age 26.

As per Michelle's dying wish, the nonprofit works to provide comfort and support to women with breast cancer and to make sure that they are properly diagnosed.

The center, which moved this year to a new office on Jefferson Avenue, provides assistance to women in the form of wigs, scarves and prostheses, a lending library, seminars, support groups for women and children, and financial assistance.

Watson said one new program being offered later this year is a family support group made possible via a partnership with Kids Konnected, a Laguna Hills-based nonprofit that supports the children of parents with cancer.

She said these sorts of groups allow folks to gather for fun activities and camaraderie, which can be rare for people dealing with cancer.

"It makes them feel they aren't so alone. They aren't the only ones," Watson said.

Reflecting on the nonprofit's early days, Watson said the idea of a $25,000 donation ---- much less potentially thousands more from people working to match it ---- would have been unimaginable.

"It's beyond our comprehension," she said. "We lived day to day when we started."

They had a few volunteers to answer phones, but there weren't many callers, she remembered.

As the nonprofit grew, and word of its mission spread, the phone started to ring more regularly.

Now, Watson said, the nonprofit provides 6,000 services a year and helps hundreds of women annually.

Plus, with the recent move, activity has surged by 10 percent, she said, because there is more room for gatherings and activities.

In recent years, the country has become more aware of breast cancer via pink ribbon campaigns and the work of Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

But there are still problems with young women getting treatment if they suspect they might have breast cancer, Watson and Conrad said.

An insurance company, they said, will pay for treatment after a diagnosis ---- but not the tests required to find out whether a woman younger than 40 has cancer.

Her mother said that Michelle Watson, a young, healthy swimmer who was 23 at the time, was told that she was fine.

"And that's what they tell a lot of women," she said.

To help make sure that doesn't happen to someone else, the nonprofit, with Komen for the Cure, can offer financial assistance to women for the tests they need.

Read more: http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/temecula/temecula-michelle-s-place-don...