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Street fair to benefit ill man
Photo
Dave Ginnetti, left, struggles with Parkinson’s disease and lung cancer. He is unable to work and has no health insurance. Jeff Jackson of Youngstown, right, is one of several friends organizing a Sept. 18 benefit for Ginnetti.
A street fair will benefit Dave Ginnetti, a man struggling with Parkinson’s disease and lung cancer.
When: 3 to 7 p.m. Sept. 18.
Where: Near Melillo’s Tavern on Liberty Street in Lowellville.
Tickets: $10 each, available at Melillo’s, 300 E. Liberty St.; at the Riverview Lounge, 213 E. Water St., Lowellville; or call 330- 501-8099 or 330-536-8945. T-shirts, also $10, are available at Melillo’s.
The event will take place rain or shine. Tents will be set up in case of rain, and people also can go inside Melillo’s.
By Jeanne Starmack
LOWELLVILLE
They know Dave Ginnetti well at Melillo’s Tavern.
He’s a regular at that cozy watering hole, along with other friends and family who work at Garland Welding a few blocks down from the bar on Liberty Street.
Since he was diagnosed with lung cancer four months ago, Ginnetti, 54, of Youngstown, can no longer work as a general laborer at Garland.
But he still stops in at Melillo’s, and he was there Thursday after his chemotherapy treatment.
“It’s rough,” he said. He sat at a table and nursed a beer, which didn’t go unnoticed by friends who teased him about deviating from his usual Pepsi.
“I’m so far in debt right now, I’ll never see daylight,” he said.
He had worked at Garland, owned by a cousin, since a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease ended his truck-driving job in 2006.
“He made a position for me,” Ginnetti said, “so I could keep a roof over my head.”
Meanwhile, Ginnetti fought for years to get Social Security disability. He finally got it in June after his doctor pushed hard for it after his lung-cancer diagnosis.
Until he gets his first disability payment in December, he is struggling to live on $400 a month in Social Security supplement.
He learned Tuesday that for reasons unknown to him, he’s lost the health insurance he had through the Mahoning County Job and Family Services. He was getting a chemo treatment at the time, and the doctor followed through.
“He said, ‘Don’t worry about it; we’ll figure it out,’” Ginnetti recalled.
Friends came to his rescue with $140 for Parkinson’s medication.
Ginnetti also has had some good news, though.
His tumor has shrunk from the size of a baseball to the size of a marble.
He also learned last week that he has a daughter.
That was a “pleasant shock,” he said of the 21-year-old woman named Megan from Virginia whom he met Saturday for the first time.
“We’ve been talking back and forth every day, and I want to be a part of her life,” he said.
Another reason, he asserted, to keep fighting.
The best front for that fight, his friends have decided, is Melillo’s.
“It’s a ‘family-oriented’ bar,” said Gwen Figley, an employee there who is helping to coordinate a benefit for Ginnetti.
The benefit, a street fair along several blocks in front of and near the bar, is from 3 to 7 p.m. Sept. 18. But stay longer, said Lori Gilson, the daytime bartender. After the band Still Smokin’ plays, it will leave its equipment set up for two other bands.
There will be games for adults and kids, a Chinese auction, a 50-50 raffle, a TV raffle, a bake sale and plenty of food donated by people and churches.
Stores including Sam’s Club, Kmart, Giant Eagle, Gordon Food Service and Schwebel’s donated food and enough items to fill 50 baskets for the auction, Figley said.
She said organizers have sold 350 tickets so far. Also available are T-shirts that read, “Git ’er Done for Dave” on the front, and “Benefit for Dave Ginnetti” on the back. They are $10 each.
June Lewis, the benefit’s main organizer, said the reason for the effort is simple.
“He’s a good guy,” she said. “He needs the help.”