SAN CLEMENTE : Elks Join Forces to Aid Ill Teen-Ager

Moved by a San Clemente teen-ager’s battle with cancer, members of the Elks Lodge in Westminster have joined their brethren in San Clemente to help raise money for the girl’s medical needs, including at least one new artificial leg.

On Sunday starting at noon, the Westminster Elks Lodge will host a barbecue fund-raiser on behalf of 17-year-old Stefanie Gorman. Tickets for the event, which will be held at the Westminster Elks Lodge, at 6391 Industry Way, are $7.50 per person.

Recently, the San Clemente Elks Lodge, to which Gorman’s grandparents belong, held a series of fund-raisers to help Stefanie’s family buy her artificial limbs designed for sports activities.

In response to a letter about Gorman sent by the San Clemente Elks, Westminster member Bob Aguilera said, he decided to organize a fund-raiser.

“It’s a good cause,” he said. “It’s a lot better for a bunch of people to do a little than only a couple to try and do a lot.”

In 1991, Gorman’s condition was diagnosed as acute non-lymphocytic leukemia. Then, in December, she lost her right leg to an infection triggered by the powerful medication she needed for cancer-related complications.

Throughout her two-year ordeal, Gorman has said she kept one main goal: To someday be active again in the sports and activities that filled her life before she got sick. Gorman now gets around on an artificial leg that cost $27,000, only half of which was covered by her parents’ insurance. But to participate in different sports, such as swimming, she needs other types of artificial legs, none of which would be paid for by insurance.

For more information on the fund-raiser, call the Westminster Elks Lodge at (714) 892-2346.