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Alum Helps Raise Over $800,000 for Cancer Research
Mark Puskarich
Title: Founder, President of A Christmas To Cure Cancer
Department: Business, Accounting, & Economics
Major: Business Administration
Class: 1986
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When Mark Puskarich ’86 and his friends began recording Christmas albums in 1998, it was simply to share their talents with family and friends. But in early 2000, their hobby took on a new meaning when the band’s guitarist, Lorne VanFossen was diagnosed with stage III Hodgkin’s lymphoma. That same year, the band sold their CD as A Christmas to Cure Cancer to raise money for cancer research.

Twelve years later, A Christmas To Cure Cancer, now a nonprofit organization established by Puskarich, has raised more than $800,000 for its cancer research partners, including The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Stephanie Spielman Fund for Breast Cancer Research, the American Cancer Society, the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Columbus, Nationwide Children’s Hospital and more.

On Friday, November 30, the 11th annual A Christmas To Cure Cancer benefit gala will be held at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium beginning at 5 p.m., complete with a social hour, children’s activities, a live auction and musical performances.

The fundraising albums and events have become a way of life for Puskarich. In 2007, he left his 22-year information technology career at Worthington Industries to focus on the charity full time.

“What Mark has accomplished is nothing short of amazing,” musician Sean Carney, founder of Blues for a Cure, a subsidiary of A Christmas To Cure Cancer, told The Columbus Dispatch. “Mark is an incredibly selfless person and one of those rare individuals who asks for nothing.”

Puskarich was awarded the Otterbein University Alumni Award for Community Service in 2007.