The Greenport community is gearing up for another event to help one of its own.
Tomorrow the Greenport Fire Department is hosting a giant chinese auction and fundraising party being put on by Friends of Danielle Harrison-Meraz to help the 53-year-old Southold woman battling cancer.
Harrison-Meraz grew up in Greenport and graduated Greenport High School. A mother of three adult children and grandmother of six, she was diagnosed just before Christmas with metastatic lung cancer that had spread to her brain and spleen.
Harrison-Meraz has undergone radiation and is now having agressive chemotherapy treatment.
Friends and strangers alike have banded together as “Team Danielle” to help support a woman who is known throughout the community as someone who has always been there to help others.
Harrison-Meraz is an “amazing, beautiful, caring, giving woman” who has “made a difference in so many lives so many lives,” said Greenport resident Georgia Charland on the “Friends of Danielle Harrison-Meraz” Facebook page. “It’s time to give back,” she said.
A group of volunteers has organized the chinese auction, which will take place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. There are hundreds of prizes up for grabs, and they run the gamut of foods, wines and services donated by local business and residents, including a getaway package from Cross Sound Ferry, an original painting by artist Vincent C. Brandi, and a helicopter ride from North Fork Helicopter. There is no charge for admission to the chinese auction. Prize tickets are $5 each or 5 for $20.
“The response from the community has been just overwhelming,” said Denise Thilberg, who headed up the committee that organized the chines auction. They got hundreds and hundreds of donations — many even unsolicited — from local businesses and residents.
“We have a 28-foot car trailer packed full with baskets for the auction,” Thilberg said. “It’s incredible. It’s like a sea of baskets.”
There will be a fundraising party at the firehouse tomorrow from 1 to 6 p.m. The $25 admission includes music by Yankee Rebel, Romeo’s Dream and DJ Yankee, with light food and refreshments served. (Admission is $10 for kids 6 to 12, with kids 5 and under free.)
WLNG radio will be doing a live broadcast from the event tomorrow and the North Fork Roasting Company will be serving fresh-brewed coffee from 3 to 6 p.m. Paper goods for the event have been donated by Kait’s Angels.
The party has been organized by a team headed up by Mark Zaleski and Vinny Tirelli, who have set up a “Friends of Danielle” fundraising account. (Donations to “Friends of Danielle Harrison-Meraz” may be sent to Bridgehampton National Bank, P.O. Box 1567, Southold, NY 11971.)
Tickets for the fundraising party are available at Wendy’s Deli, Wm. J. Mills & Co., Four Doors Down, Making Waves and Skippers. Tickets are also available at the door.
“It is totally amazing to me,” Harrison-Meraz said today. “This community is so loving and caring. I will never be able to thank everyone properly. I love them all and am so grateful — so blessed,” she said.
“It’s going to be quite a day and I will probably dehydrate from crying,” she said.
Harrison-Meraz said in an interview last month that her diagnosis, which came “out of the blue” when a tumor growing in her brain suddenly interfered with her ability to do basic tasks, showed her how life can change so completely in the blink of an eye.
Today, she focuses on enjoying life in the moment, spending time with family and friends. The community has become her extended family, she says with gratitude.
“Be grateful — always,” Harrison-Meraz tells everyone. “Count your blessings.”
