Andrea Courtney has all the qualifications it takes to be deeply touched by the story of 5-year-old leukemia victim Gavin Brunin.
She’s a mom.
But it is very safe to observe that this 28-year-old Litchfield Park resident is no average, everyday mom.
The very minute Courtney first heard of Gavin’s battle, she put her new, but already very successful real estate business on the back burner — and on the front burner she put Gavin.
That was about two months ago. Since then, Courtney has spent four to five hours a day working to help Gavin’s parents, Mike and Mashawn Brunin, cover the ever-skyrocketing portion of their son’s bone-marrow transplants and other medical expenses that won’t be covered by health insurance.
Important note: Courtney had never met Gavin or his parents until Halloween day, when their very first face-to-face encounter at the Brunins’ Avondale home was arranged by the West Valley View.
“I don’t care if my name is ever mentioned in connection with this,” Courtney said. “If Gavin could have just one day or night where he can just have fun, and his family can just forget about what they’ve been going through for one hour, then my job is accomplished.”
Most of Courtney’s efforts to that end hinge on “Gala for Gavin,” a benefit dinner, raffle and silent auction to unfold at 6 p.m., Nov. 12, at The Wigwam Resort & Golf Club, 300 W. Wigwam Blvd. in Litchfield Park.
The guest of honor, of course, will be Gavin himself — wearing the tiny, brand-new tuxedo given to him by Courtney moments after their first hug.
“I just think it’s the most awesome thing a person could do,” said Mashawn Brunin of Courtney’s cause. “It’s incredibly generous and really big hearted.”
“What Andrea is doing is amazing,” added Joanie Curtis, the Brunins’ friend, next-door neighbor and volunteer medical accountant for all of Gavin’s bills. “I have never seen anything like this before in my life. I have never seen one person put something together so big and so fast. She’s doing a fantastic job.”
Reaching out
Courtney is a product of the West Valley. She grew up in Avondale, bought her first house in Goodyear, now lives in Litchfield Park and is preparing to move back to Goodyear with her husband, two daughters, Alexis, 10, and Brooklyn, 4, and her son, Brandon, 6.
“I read the story about Gavin in the West Valley View and … I don’t know. You read about bad things every day. But I think the story touched me so deeply because of his age, and the fact that he was right here in Avondale,” Courtney said a few days before meeting Gavin. “As soon as I put the paper down, I said, ‘I’m going to do something for that little boy.’ I just felt compelled; it was something I just had to follow up on.”
Follow up she did. Within days she had lined up the Wigwam Resort, where the management offered a hefty discount as soon as Courtney told them what she was doing.
She didn’t stop there, though. Courtney proceeded to create and launch a fully detailed marketing campaign (including brochures, fliers and PowerPoint presentation) to promote the event. At last count, she’d signed up 23 corporate sponsors and many dozens of businesses and individuals eager to buy tickets for the dinner and/or donate items for the silent auction.
“I’m one of those people who truly believes, 100 percent, that what comes around goes around,” Courtney said. “If anything ever happened to one of my kids, or my husband or my parents, I would hope that somebody would help me in one way or another; that somebody — strangers, anyone — that would reach out to me.”
That’s not all that has motivated her, however.
“Here’s what really tears me up,” Courtney said. “This time last year, Mike and Mashawn had no idea what was wrong with Gavin. They didn’t have a diagnosis until last January. Between then and now, what they’ve endured …”
Courtney’s voice trailed off.
“I don’t think there are many people who could handle that,” she continued in a barely audible voice. “I don’t think I could.”
Going with the flow
It was just 13 months ago that Mashawn Brunin found a lump on the back of her son’s head. Following a few overly optimistic misdiagnoses, Gavin was diagnosed with JMML, a cancer of the myeloid cells in the bone marrow. A cancer with a 25 percent survival rate.
Unfortunately, the boy’s medical challenges keep coming. He has undergone one bone-marrow transplant, courtesy of his 2-year-old brother, Aiden, but Gavin almost certainly will need others. Meanwhile, a blood clot found last month in his heart has yet to dissolve despite the two injections of blood-thinning medications Gavin receives every day.
“He’s looking good,” Mashawn said of her son Oct. 31. “But last week, his doctors looked at his blood-test results and said [the leukemia] was starting to come back. But we’re doing pretty well. We’re just going with the flow.”
That’s what Courtney is doing, too. It’s just that her flow is more accelerated than most.
“When it’s all said and done, I just hope that what I’m doing brings me some inner peace; that’s all I ask for,” Courtney said. “A little peace from knowing that I did what I could because I knew I could do it.”
Mike Burkett can be reached by e-mail at mburkett@westvalleyview.com.
WHAT: “Gala for Gavin,” a dinner, silent auction, raffle and entertainment to raise funds for Gavin Brunin’s bone-marrow transplant campaign through the Children’s Transplant Organ Association
WHEN: 6 to 9:30 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 12
WHERE: The Main Ballroom of The Wigwam Resort & Golf Club, 300 W. Wigwam Blvd. in Litchfield Park
COST: $60 per plate
INFORMATION: To make a reservation, sign up for a corporate sponsorship, donate to the silent auction or help in any other way, call Andrea Courtney at 623-297-3991
