The Controversy Around the Gilda Club ~ The Laurel Auto Group Pro-Am Charity Golf Classic

Within the past week, the internet has been in an uproar about the Gilda Club Madison changing its name because younger patients today don’t recognize the esteemed SNL actress’s name. The club will phase into the new name of Cancer Support Community Southwest Wisconsin by January, which will help to encompass a wider area. That particular branch is the fourth affiliate within the global organization to make the change.

Gilda Radner was a comedian who performed on Saturday Night Live during the ’80s. She is best known for her original characters of Roseanne Roseannadanna, Emily Litella and Baba Wawa. And, she died from ovarian cancer in 1989 when she was 42 years old. Before her death, she did not keep quiet about the disease and instead put a very public face to it.

The Madison club is just a branch of about two dozen national affiliates belonging to the larger Gilda's Club, which is named after Radner's famous remark that compares cancer to a membership in "an elite club I'd rather not belong to.” The organization helps to provide emotional support, cancer education and wellness activities for cancer patients and their families. The Madison chapter was just established in 2008. Gilda’s Club Worldwide, which is based on the East Coast, and the Wellness Community, where Radner got support on the West Coast after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1986, slowly grew together and joined forces in 2009. This means that the name change to Cancer Support Community makes a little sense. The other two affiliates to adopt a name change were North Texas and Milwaukee.

Executive Director of Gilda’s Club Madison Lannia Syren Stenz had this to say about the name change.

“...[O]ur college students were born after Gilda Radner passed, as we are seeing younger and younger adults who are dealing with a cancer diagnosis… We want to make sure that what we are is clear to them and that there’s not a lot of confusion that would cause people not to come in our doors."

In response to all of this, critics on social media have said “Shame on you.” They claim that changing the name suggests that Gilda’s legacy is not worth protecting, despite the fact that without Gilda’s celebrity status, ovarian cancer might not have received the attention it did. People have also claimed that changing the name is an insult to Gilda’s life, memory, and work. In addition, other branches—including New York, Grand Rapids (Mich.), and the national organization—have come out and staunchly proclaimed that their names will not change.

You can read more about the controversy below:

Monday, December 3, 2012

The Controversy Around the Gilda Club

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