Karen Cummings, former Communications Specialist for Dana-Farber

Karen Cummings, who is retired and living in Maine, worked in Communications atDana-Farber Cancer Institute from late 1995 to early 2007. She was mainly in charge of publicity for fundraising events, mostly for the Jimmy Fund,but also for special Dana-Farber events. She knew she was in for some exciting times when her very first event to publicize was a black-tie affair with Ted Williams when he returned to Boston for the opening of the Ted Williams Tunnel. The 50th anniversary of Dana-Farber was one year before that of the Jimmy Fund, so to get up to speed, Karen spent a lot of time going through files and reading old clippings about the founding of both. This work gave her extensive background to the early times of the Jimmy Fund and a giant clue that the original Jimmy might still be alive. Karen brought the original “Jimmy” back to Dana-Farber. Karen’s son is now a patient at Dana-Farber.