Jan’s Fans Are Ready For A Fight — Always

Kailua’s Relay for Life is still two months away, but the Jan’s Fans team has been working hard all year – for nine years, in fact – to raise cancer-fighting funds.

Comprised of about 60 Oahu families mostly in Kailua and four generations of the late Jan Broderick’s friends and ohana, Jan’s Fans continue to honor her and always are ready for a cancer fight. Their next move is to have a garage sale from 7 a.m. to noon this Saturday at 138 Kailulu Way. Everyone is invited to come by, make a donation and leave with a few choice items. Or join the team. Or volunteer for a task. Or dedicate a luminaria. The team’s garage sales over the years have put more than $4,000 into the local chapter of American Cancer Society. Beyond that, the team is proud of its overall contribution since 2005 of about $175,000, and also proud of its motto, “Love All Around.”

“When Jan was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, right after that we came together, and it’s just gone on more effectively since then,” said Krista Cole, a team member who was friends with the Brodericks’ daughters at Aikahi Elementary. “I’m not a ringleader of this,” she was quick to add, pointing to Jan’s close friend Margie DeJournett, who coordinates each yearly campaign.

A Realtor, business-woman, teacher, wife, mother and tutu, Broderick succumbed to cancer in April of 2006 at age 61, but not before she participated in Jan’s Fans’ first Kailua Relay for Life. According to daughter Kristi, members also extend their care to others in the group who have acquired the disease over the years. She was “the little lady with the great big smile and a radiance that touched many,” she said.

The relay itself begins at 6 p.m. July 12 at Kailua High School. For more information, call 595-7500 or visit https://main.acsevents.org/goto/kailuajansfans.