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Chamberlain grad's golf tourney helps others with cancer

Tribune photo by JULIE BUSCH

Darby Steadman high-fives friend Robbie Henderson after he sunk a putt during the Driving Miss Darby Foundation tournament at Heritage Isles Golf & Country Club in North Tampa.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 30, 2009

Updated: 05/30/2009 03:40 pm

TAMPA - Being around Darby Steadman for just a few minutes, you can feel the enthusiasm swirling. On Saturday, that fervor was marshaled by a tightly knit group of friends into a well-oiled fundraiser that was part golf tournament, part high school reunion and much more.

The event was expected to raise more than $30,000 for a cause that first came to light when Steadman herself was diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer two years ago in Maryland.

The Chamberlain High School graduate befriended a few women at the time in treatment with her who, even though insurance covered their medical expenses in an experimental clinic at Johns Hopkins University, it did not cover their travel and lodging expenses.

Steadman said she came to know a waitress who lived not far from the university who couldn't afford to take time off work or even afford the gas it took to make the trip. Women like that shouldn't have to worry about those expenses when faced with fighting cancer, she said.

"We want to help those women," she said, dressed in a pink top and white shorts, as she chummed around with golfers and organizers Saturday afternoon. "We want to make their lives easier."

Steadman decided to do something. Still recovering from cancer -- she refuses to say she's in remission -- the 39-year-old member of the 1987 homecoming court at Chamberlain and mother of two began the Driving Miss Darby Foundation which raises money to help cancer patients at the Johns Hopkins clinic pay for lodging and travel.

Word traveled through Facebook, on which many members of Steadman's graduating class kept in touch, and before long, the golf tourney was staged at the Heritage Isles Golf & Country Club in North Tampa.

Organizers included classmates, some of whom haven't seen Steadman for years. The tournament drew high school friends from as far away as Seattle.

"I'm blessed to have all these women here in Tampa," she said or the organizing force.

Her husband John, also a Chamberlain graduate, agreed. "It's truly a wellspring of love and generosity in making this happen," he said.

An hour after the first golfer teed off under the hot and humid sun, the Steadmans lit out on a golf cart to greet everyone on the course.

"All I want to do is put my eyeballs on everybody," she said, "and just say thank you."

And she did.

"I've known her since we were 5," said Ryan McCall who had just sunk a putt on a nearby green. He hugged Steadman.

"I have a picture of us when I was taller than him," she grinned.

On another hole, they greeted Andre Lozano, who came here this weekend all the way from Bar Harbor, Maine.

"I flew in late last night and I'm leaving tomorrow morning," said Lozano, sporting an old Tampa Bay Buccaneers Creamsicle-colored visor and shorts covered in little red lobsters.

Asked why, he didn't hesitate.

"You're kidding me," he said. "I'm here for her."

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7761.

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