Johnny Mac Foundation Launches Web Site

Finding a location in Blue Point for a community center to honor her late-husband’s memory will be difficult, Jennifer McNamara admits.

So too, will be raising the money needed to build it.

“You start slowly and pick up momentum,” McNamara said. “But if the right property came along, I would have to find a way [to pay for it].”

Finding a way. A sentiment that echoes her husband’s rallying cry: Whatever It Takes …

New York City fireman John McNamara’s three-year battle with colon cancer has been well chronicled in local media. The 44-year-old died in 2009 after being diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer in 2006. This came after more than 500 hours working at the World Trade Center-Ground Zero site, which friends and family point to as the source for his cancer.

Patch reported on Jennifer McNamara’s efforts to form the John F. McNamara Foundation (aka Johnny Mac Foundation) last September. Among its many goals, the foundation’s main objective was to raise at least $2 million to build a center in the late-fireman’s town, one of the “wish-list” items he penned while undergoing treatment at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City.

Website Tells a Firefighter's Story

Last week, foundation organizers unveiled a website (www.johnnymacfoundation.org) that they hope will significantly raise awareness, and ultimately, funds.

The site, designed by Perception Imaging in Holbrook, was shown to friends, supporters, local officials and others at the Blue Point Fire Department.

Speakers included John Feal, founder and president of the FealGood Foundation, which has as its primary mission to educate the public about the health effects associated with working at Ground Zero.

“We’ve lost a lot of good people since we started this battle, and John was the best of the best,” he said. Suffolk County Legislator Rob Calarco said “[Building a community center] has become something personal for me to see this through. It will be a good thing for the Blue Point community and I’m pleased to be a part of it.”

The website features a calendar of events section, highlighting upcoming fundraisers, such as the May 19 Strides for the Center 5k Run/Walk. There’s a photo gallery, Jennifer McNamara’s eulogy to her husband, profiles of foundation board members, and a donation link to PayPal.

It’s all designed to help fulfill John McNamara’s dream of having “a real space for the community,” Jennifer McNamara said.

“Having this site up gives us a very large reach,” she said. “We have friends and contacts all around the world, and this is the best way to connect with all of them.”

With so much support in one place, Carol Brass says she finds strength when thinking about her late brother. “People say it does [become easier] but then there are days when it just hits you. It’s always there,” she said.

At the same time John McNamara was diagnosed with cancer, Jennifer was pregnant with their son, Jack. She said knowing he would soon have a son gave her husband an even greater drive to live.

“When John would check into [Sloan Kettering] for treatment, he would write down on a piece of paper ‘Whatever It Takes’ and post it on a bulletin board,” she said. “He would do anything in order to spend one more day with Jack. For him, the hardest thing was knowing that he might have to leave Jack behind.”

‘John’s Wishes’

While in Sloan, John McNamara wrote down a series of wishes in the event he died. Those can be read on the new website. He kept it to himself, his brother Patrick said.

“He wrote this two and half years beforehand. It was so important to John that Jack knew that his dad would never stop fighting,” Patrick McNamara said. “It’s emotional every time I see this list. For Jen, she’s taken this list as a mission.”

While many of the 20 items gave specific direction as to funeral arrangements, it was John McNamara’s 14th that has become a central focus:

“A youth center to be built, named the John McNamara Center, that would provide the youth of the neighborhood a place to go for counseling, computers, study, a skateboard park, a local meeting place for everything from scouting to the local civic groups, etc.”

“I remember when I first saw the list, I said wow, he’s really going to keep me busy,” Jennifer McNamara said. “But I don’t think John would have written these things for me if he didn’t think I could handle this.” As to whether fulfilling all of her late-husband’s wishes has become somewhat of a burden, McNamara countered that in fact, “it’s an honor,” she said.

“I still am one of the luckiest people. I married someone who was my absolute soul mate. John’s dreams have become my dreams. And if the community center has my husband’s name on it, it has to be top notch.”