"Little did I realize when my cousin Nancy Chuda called me that February that I would be connected much more than blood to her from that moment on! As first cousins -- our Dads were brothers -- we were raised on opposite coasts and didn't touch base often. However, I was

fortunate to visit periodically, and was blessed to know Colette as a baby. But when she called that morning and asked me to "review a press release," I never imagined I was going to jump into unchartered waters that would become my passion.

Since that February morning, I have served as CHEC's national publicist. In the early years I worked solely with Nancy as my "Editor-In-Chief." My background professionally in medical and health public relations was ideally suited for CHEC'S tasks

at hand. Together Nancy and I worked on media story development and placements; writing the congressional testimony when she spoke at the House of Representatives, developing and publishing the first CHEC brochure and logo, and even planning and coordinating a board meeting agenda and travel plans. Connecting bicoastally from Florida to California, our fax machines didn't recognize day or night...and neither did our spouses....

As technology has grown in this new millenium so too has our CHEC family. With the advent of e-mail, CHEC now can work easily not just bi-coastally but also multi-coastally, with active home offices in Florida and Minnesota, and official offices in Los Angeles and New Jersey. With our spirits undaunted, I and my "CHECMATES" work hard to fulfill our mission and achieve our goal: to put children in the center of the environmental health movement. And in doing so, we honor Colette's memory in a way that will make her star shine ever-so-brightly in the Universe."

Board Member, Betty Ann Gaynor