BOARDMAN Dinner to benefit arthritis

The juvenile-arthritis foundation headquarters is in Poland.
By WILLIAM K. ALCORN
VINDICATOR HEALTH WRITER
BOARDMAN -- The Terry Lynch Foundation's inaugural major fund-raiser is a dinner-dance Sunday at the Holiday Inn in Boardman to raise money to fight juvenile rheumatoid arthritis and other related diseases in children.
The foundation was established Sept. 11, 2002, in honor of Lynch, who had been killed in the terrorist attack on the Pentagon the year before.
Lynch, 49, was a 1970 graduate of Youngstown Ursuline High School and received bachelor's and master's degrees in history from Youngstown State University in 1975 and 1977, respectively.
Lynch, of Mount Vernon, Va., was doing consulting work for Booz Allen Hamilton when the hijacked plane struck the Pentagon. He was there at a meeting to improve health-care benefits for military people when he was killed, said his wife, the former Jacqueline Frechko.
Mrs. Lynch, who lives in Poland and runs the foundation out of her home, graduated from Austintown Fitch High School in 1971 and also graduated from YSU. She said she eventually wants to move the foundation headquarters to downtown Youngstown.
Appearing at dinner
Atty. Richard G. Ketchum, president and deputy chairman of the NASDAQ Stock Market, will speak at the event. Ketchum is a member of the adjunct faculty of the Georgetown School of Law and a member of the bar in both New York and the District of Columbia.
U.S. Reps. Tim Ryan and Ted Strickland also will make remarks, and disc jockey The Music Man will provide entertainment.
The event begins with cocktails at 6 p.m. and dinner at 7 p.m. Tickets are $75 a person and $125 a couple, and may be reserved by calling (330) 757-4077.
Inspiration for activism
Lynch, a Washington consultant and lobbyist, and his wife began supporting causes related to juvenile arthritis after their youngest daughter, Ashley, was born with the disease. Ashley, now 19, attends the University of New Mexico. The Lynches moved from the Mahoning Valley to Mount Vernon in August 1978, where Terry Lynch did legislative work for several congressmen.
Two of Lynch's biggest achievements while in Washington should help children for years to come, his wife said.
He helped spark the legislation that created National Juvenile Arthritis Awareness Week, which is recognized annually beginning July 28. And through his suggestions, the National Institutes of Health set aside funding to build a multipurpose center for children with rheumatological diseases in Bethesda, Md.He also worked with the government, studying illnesses associated with the Persian Gulf War and weapons of mass destruction before signing on with Booz Allen Hamilton in 1999.After Lynch died at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, his family and friends, including several influential Washington policy-makers, began organizing the Terry Lynch Foundation.
"The Boardman dinner-dance is the first of a series of fund-raisers ... [to help] children with JRA and their families," Mrs. Lynch said.
The foundation estimates that more than 100,000 children in the United States suffer from some form of pediatric arthritis or other rheumatic disease.
In addition to attacking the joints, JRA can result in delayed growth, chronic fatigue, poor nutrition, delayed sexual maturation and chronic eye inflammation resulting in cataracts, glaucoma and partial or total visual loss. At this time, there is no cure, Mrs. Lynch said.
People who want to get involved in the foundation can call Mrs. Lynch at (330) 757-4077.
alcorn@vindy.com