Gala takes a bite out of Lyme disease
When you have plenty of good news to share — as 13-year-old Olivia Goodreau did at the second Livlyme Foundation Gala — there’s absolutely no need to try and act blasé or deliver it with a straight face.
So she didn’t. Olivia — a seventh-grader who has suffered from chronic Lyme disease, and several co-infections, since she was 6 — stepped to the microphone, took a deep breath and then, with a smile that lit up Seawell Ballroom, exclaimed: “Wow, what a year!” Indeed it was.
In addition to her key role in running the foundation that serves Lyme disease patients and the medical professionals searching for a cure, Olivia created Ticktracker, a free app that allows users throughout the nation — and soon the world — to report and track ticks in real time.
She also has testified before the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Tickborne Disease Working Group in Washington, D.C.; accepted the 2017 Bravery Award from Stanford University’s BIOADD Laboratory for her Lyme activism; received the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes; and was appointed Junior Ambassador to the Lyme Disease Challenge Organization.
And, with proceeds from the 2018 gala, the Livlyme Foundation, a nonprofit that she started when she was 12, will have raised upwards of $500,000 for the cause.
Guests at the sold-out event were encouraged to wear green to show their commitment to Olivia’s passion for “taking a bite out of Lyme disease.” They also carried on a tradition started last year by posing for souvenir pictures while biting into a wedge of lime.
Special guests were Dr. Richard Horowitz, who was given the Livlyme Hero Award for his “classical and complimentary” approaches to the treatment of Lyme disease and other tick-borne disorders, and Ally Hilfiger, author of “Bite Me: How Lyme Disease Stole My Childhood and Almost Killed Me.”
The daughter of clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger also created, produced and starred in MTV’S “Rich Girls.” She contracted Lyme disease, which is difficult to diagnose because symptoms mimic so many other things, when she was 7, after a tick bit her on the stomach. Doctors initially attributed her malaise to everything from growing pains to strep throat.
“I felt like I’d won the lottery when I was diagnosed,” she said.
Researchers Eva Sapi from the University of New Haven, Jayakumar Rajadas (Stanford University), and Ying Zhang (Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) also were recognized, as were advocates Nicole Malachowski, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and former White House Fellow who was one of the first female fighter pilots (she completed 188 hours in combat flight), and Colorado gubernatorial candidate Mike Johnston.
Those lending support to the fundraiser included Olivia’s parents, Holiday and Stan Goodreau, and her twin brothers, Will and Jack; her grandmother, Barbara Grogan; Roxane White, the Morgridge Family Innovator in Residence at The Aspen Institute, with her daughter, Donalyn White and Donalyn’s fiancé, Griffin Galileo Scherma; Barbara Bridges, who organizes the annual Women + Film for the Denver Film Society; Veronica Figoli, president/ CEO of the Denver Public Schools Foundation; dentist Terry Brewick and Rick Morales; executive director Julie Gart and board member Ching-yuan Hu from the Zane Beadles Parade Foundation; Lorii Rabinowitz, CEO of the Denver Scholarship Foundation, with Swallow Hill CEO Paul Lhevine; and Cindy Cheadle, who had been Olivia’s second-grade teacher.
Also, former Denver Nugget Anthony Carter and his wife, Cassie, who has Lyme disease; Brooke Maloy; Eddie Koen, chief impact officer at Mile High United Way, with his wife, Andria; Kate Paul and hubby Mike Passmore; Dr. Dean Prina and Patricia Barela Rivera; Andy Levy, senior director of development at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus; attorney Spike Eklund and his wife, Nan; and Shelby Ross, who serves on the board of the Global Livingston Institute, with fiancé Ryan Morse.