WHEN IT COMES TO HER CAREER, ANITA BROCCOLINO HAS A LOT TO DRAW ON

INTERVIEW BY Martha Thomas PHOTOGRAPH BY André Chung

Anita Broccolino is director of fundraising and special events for the Claudia Mayer Cancer Resource Center. She began her career in television as an associate producer at Maryland Public Television and eventually found her way to special events planning. The two fields have a lot in common, she says. “You have to juggle all sorts of details and manage things on the fly. But, at the same time, oversee the big picture.”

Located at Howard County General Hospital, the center serves more than 7,000 clients – cancer patients as well as family and friends – each year, providing educational resources and research material, counseling, support groups, wellness services like massage and acupuncture, and a wig salon.

Q When did you make the leap from television to events and marketing?

It happened gradually. I started working for an uncle who had a professional beauty supply distributorship. Along with helping out with stores, I started doing hair shows. I helped to produce a show in D.C. The director of shows for Wella International was there, and she recruited me to their New York office. I worked for quite a few years as the national show manager for Wella and had the chance to travel and do a lot of neat things.

Q How has that exposure to the world affected your work here in Howard County?

I’m able to bring an appreciation for people of all different backgrounds. I’ve worked with such a broad range of people, I feel as if I come with an acceptance and appreciation for people’s differences.

Q Do you miss living in New York and traveling the world?

Even though by comparison I’m not traveling so much, I feel that I have a wonderfully full life. I’m helping to broaden the scope of how the center is funded. Previously it subsisted mostly on individual donations. Now we’re expanding. For example we now have Team Conquer, a group of people who combine their fitness interests with something philanthropic. It’s similar to groups like the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training – a group of people who raise money by competing in races. The intiative is bringing in folks who didn’t know about the center before.

I’m also writing many more grants. One of the things I’m most concerned about is, we’ve grown into this amazing facility with services that people really need to be able to thrive while going through treatment. I want the center to be available to absolutely everyone. That keeps me up at night.

Q Your father is president of Howard County General and your mother, a dear friend of Claudia Mayer’s. And then there’s your professional experience…How much better suited could you be for this job?

I’m actually a cancer survivor. Two years after the center opened, I was diagnosed as stage-four lymphoma. I was told I had a 50-50 chance of surviving. I said, okay, I’ll take the 50 that lives.

It was right after I came back from New York. I was just about to start a new job and had a little cough that wouldn’t go away. I went to the doctor, and he suggested an X-ray just to be safe. He called me on my cell phone on my first day of work and said, I need to see you. I said, maybe next week, and he said, no, I have to see you today. I had to go to my new boss and ask to leave early. He was amazing. I was blessed that the people I worked with were so understanding. I could have been kicked out on my ear.

Q But you had cancer…

I worked through my cancer. I had to get up and get to work some days. As you go along in your treatment, it gets harder and harder. It was almost eight months in total, with a couple of breaks in there.

Q Did you use the Claudia Mayer Resource Center?

I’d go in and study the books and pamphlets. I loved the stylists who give away their time. They were sweet souls to me and really understood. They know what’s going on with the hair through the chemotherapy. I became totally bald. At first I had a wig but I didn’t want to wear it. Although the stylist had done a beautiful job, it felt hot on my head. I ended up wearing a lot of hats. Toward the end, I thought, if I have to deal with this, so be it. I went around bald. I love the irony: Here I was in the hair industry, and I end up bald. But the good news is, my hair grew back beautifully thick, wavy and dark. It was fun. For about a year and a half I kept it short and wavy. Then it started going back to its old self.

Q Along with being experts on hair, are the stylists at the center experts on self-esteem?

People come into the center in tears because their hair is coming out, and they leave smiling and laughing. They seem to be saying, I have cancer, but I don’t have to look like I have cancer.

The center is there to help with such a range of emotions. We have people who walk in and can’t even use the word cancer. The director, Leslie Rogers, is just phenomenal. She’ll take someone into her office and sit with them and really let them be wherever they are and help them work through it.

Q Years ago, cancer was such a stigma that people couldn’t bring themselves to say it. Has that changed?

People can talk about it now, so you don’t have to hide your feelings. If you’re diagnosed with cancer you are still scared out of your mind – you don’t know what it will bring. But because people can talk about it, they don’t have to repress the fear and anxiety – and the pain of it. They can be more open, and that means friends and family, all the people around them, can be more supportive.

Q How are you doing now?

I am cancer-free, though I go in for regular checkups, and that is always extremely anxiety provoking; you never know. I sadly have two friends with breast cancer. It’s nice that the center is here for them. I can say I’ve used exactly what I’m raising money for. That’s the most important thing. That’s why I work as hard as I do.

Q The Claudia Mayer Resource Center has a great relationship with the Howard County Tourism Council.

The whole crew involved with Blossoms of Hope is just amazing. It’s been a very mutually beneficial partnership. We couldn’t ask for a better partnership.

Q What do you remember about Claudia Mayer?

Claudia was a good friend of my mom’s. My mother speaks of her as being very courageous. The thing I remember most is the smile in her eyes.