Illness doesn’t hold her back
By Tom Buckham NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 06/22/08 6:49 AM



Margaret Roblin was instrumental in planning “Dancin’ in the Rain,” a gala to raise funds for ALS research.


One night during her three-year fight against amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Margaret Roblin dreamed a cure had been found.

When she mentioned it to her husband, Daniel A. Roblin III, he said, “Why don’t you go out and find one?”

That was all Maggie Roblin — who as chairwoman of the Buffalo Arts Commission overcame city budget cuts, political meddling and other kinds of adversity — needed to hear.

“I thought, why not?” she said.

Her disease, commonly known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive degenerative variety that attacks motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord. Muscles atrophy, eventually impairing movement, breathing and speech, and finally causing paralysis and death. Most people live three to five years after being diagnosed, though a handful live longer.

In other words, ALS posed the sort of challenge Roblin was not afraid to tackle.

After searching the world over for helpful information about ALS, of which there turned out to be little, she will shift into fundraising gear for “Dancin’ in the Rain,” an evening of food, drink, music and dance Wednesday in the Statler Golden Ballroom. The $100-a-ticket event — VIP admission is $250 — will benefit the ALS Therapy Development Institute, a nonprofit biotechnology company in Cambridge, Mass., that spearheads ALS research in the United States.

It is the first step in the Roblins’ commitment to raise $1 million over five years for research at the institute.

“I want to make a difference,” Roblin said.

Such determined allies are vital to the ALS institute, which this year hopes to raise $1.5 million more than the $4.5 million it received in 2007 in order to match a $6 million challenge grant from Augie Nieto, a California businessman diagnosed two years ago.

“When I met the Roblins, they had no idea how critical efforts like theirs are to our existence,” said Derek Breau, the ALS institute’s Northeast regional director. “We are 90 percent driven by friends and family” of people with ALS, he said. “Dancin’ in the Rain” is the biggest fundraiser on the agency’s 2008 calendar, added Breau, who will attend the event with other ALS institute leaders.

Sponsored by the Margaret Roblin Fund, the gala will run from 6 p. m. to midnight. The band Atlas and jazz vocalist Sharon Bailey will be among the performers. For ticket and sponsorship information, visit www.dancinintherain.com or www.margaretroblinfund.com . Tickets also will be available at the door. Proceeds will be used to bolster the ALS institute’s research staff, which currently has 30 scientists, and invest in laboratory robots, Breau said.

If anyone can pull off a successful benefit, it is Maggie Roblin, who helped organize Friends of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in the early 1980s and was chairwoman of four Philharmonic balls and four Curtain Up! dinners, among other galas.

Mayor Byron W. Brown proclaimed Wednesday “Margaret Roblin Day” in the city, and during a ceremony Friday, Brown honored Roblin for her work in promoting arts and culture.

The fundraiser’s title, “Dancin’ in the Rain,” came from Roblin’s longtime friend, Michael Cunningham, who told her: “Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”

“I’m going to find a cure and live to dance one more time . . . well, more than once,” she said.

tbuckham@buffnews.com

http://www.buffalonews.com:80/cityre...ry/375729.html