IBR members deliver 25,000 letters

SENDING A MESSAGE — PEF President Roger Benson is flanked by state legislators and members at an April press conference as they prepare to deliver thousands of letters calling on the state to save the Institute for Basic Research. — Photo by John Epting
IBR members deliver 25,000 letters
Legislators to PEF: Keep pouring it on

By SHERRY HALBROOK
PEF and its members are sparing no efforts in their campaign to defeat the state Executive Budget proposal that would close the Institute for Basic Research (IBR) on Staten Island.

According to Mike Fenko, a research scientist and council leader of PEF Division 345 at IBR, the union has launched a massive effort to educate state policymakers about the vital role IBR plays in offering hope to New Yorkers and others suffering from mental retardation, developmental disabilities, and such devastating diseases as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

The fight-back effort includes meeting with legislators, rallies, press conferences, writing letters and e-mails to lawmakers, creating a “save-IBR” Web site and even publishing a booklet titled: “What Would the World Be Like without IBR?”

Because the institute is operated by the state Office of Mental Retardation and Development Disabilities, it’s not covered under provisions of the state Mental Hygiene Law that have allowed PEF to seek a permanent injunction against the June closings of the Nathan Kline Institute and the NYS Psychiatric Institute, as well as four psychiatric centers.

The IBR members, Fenko said, are heartened by the outpouring of support they have received from PEF, Staten Island, the mental health and scientific communities, and from people all over the world who are counting on their research and who have benefitted from IBR’s state-of-the-art diagnostic and clinical services.

“My mother called me and said, ‘Send me petitions and letters to legislators. Our whole town wants to sign them,’” said PEF member Joan Russo Small, an IBR nurse.
IBR MATTERS — PEF member Judy Russo Small, a nurse at the Institute for Basic Research, and her nephew, Christian Russo, tell the media at an April press conference in Albany why funding for IBR must be restored. — Photo by John Epting

Delivering their message
A delegation of more than 30 of the scientists, social workers, psychologists, nurses, other health professionals, patients, caregivers, and other IBR supporters went to the state Capitol in early April to personally deliver thousands of letters, postcards and petitions to the governor and state legislators, calling on them to restore funding for IBR to the state budget.

“In fact, the approximately 25,000 letters and other messages we are delivering today are only a part of the support for IBR which has been flooding into Albany,” said PEF Region 11 Political Action Chair Nithia Chatterjie, an IBR research scientist, speaking at a PEF press conference in Albany.

“Another 30,000 to 40,000 letters have already been sent to the legislators and the governor,” Chatterjie said.

Lawmakers: ‘It’s working’
“Keep the pressure on! The thousands of letters and mail we are receiving from you are very helpful to us in delivering your message to the governor,” responded Peter Rivera, chair of the state Assembly Committee on Mental Health, at the PEF press conference.

“PEF is taking the lead in this battle,” Rivera said, “and I can’t emphasize too much how important it is for you to keep this pressure on.

“I’m finding the Senate is also with us. It’s not just the Assembly Democrats. We all have to work together to stop these closures of state facilities.”

Assembly Members Michael Cusick, John Lavelle and Matthew Mirones, and a representative of State Sen. John Marchi, — all of Staten Island — echoed Rivera’s strong support.

“Sen. Marchi has been a supporter of IBR for as long as there has been an IBR, and he feels sure IBR will be there in the future,” Marchi’s aide assured the worried supporters.

“I believe these (state research) facilities should be enhanced, not closed,” Mirones said. “Your letters are very helpful in delivering this message to the governor.”

“This really has become a team effort to save IBR,” Assembly Member Cusick said.

Referring to the stacks of cartons filled with mail in support of IBR, the legislators said their offices are already jammed with stacks of boxes filled with letters about IBR, some from France and other foreign countries.

“You may hear reports that IBR has been saved,” cautioned Lavelle, “but until we hear that from the governor, we cannot let up. This fight will not be over until the governor says it’s over.”

COMMON GOAL — PEF members and other supporters of the Institute for Basic Research prepare to deliver thousands of letters to state leaders in Albany asking them to restore funding to keep the institute open. — Photo by John Epting

False economy
PEF President Roger Benson said it would be a “false economy” to end the research into better ways to prevent and treat conditions that now prevent so many New Yorkers from living full, self-supporting lives. He called on state lawmakers and the governor to ease the fiscal crisis by requiring big businesses and the wealthy to contribute their fair share to state revenues.

“The research pays for itself many times over by penetrating the deep mysteries of human development,” Benson said.

He and other speakers noted the economic blow to Staten Island if more than 200 researchers and other IBR staff were to lose their jobs in July as proposed in the Executive Budget.

The institute goes beyond research to provide cutting-edge diagnostic and treatment services to 3,000 families from all over the world, according to PEF member Karen Amble, director of social services at IBR’s George A. Jervis Diagnostic and Research Clinic.

“I am currently helping someone in Tibet book plane reservations to come to IBR,” Amble said.

Dr. Maryellen Keogh, a PEF member who provides neuropsychological services at the clinic, said it also provides invaluable training and education for medical residents, graduate students, educators and families who might not otherwise have the opportunity to learn about this area of medicine.

Mary Chamberlain, 23, of Albany, and her father, Stephen Chamberlain, said the IBR research into new treatments gives them hope for overcoming some of her developmental disabilities.

When her father said she dreams that someday Mary will be able to drive her own car, her enthusiastic response left no doubt how important this research is to her and so many others.

PEF Ad campaign blitz breaks statewide on March 30, 2003
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