Ellie Eleanor Anbinder
Co-Founder
Eleanor F. Anbinder (Ellie) has been active for 20+ years in the breast cancer movement. She became involved just after her diagnosis of breast cancer and her commitment has been steadfast ever since. Ellie was among the first active members of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition and she has served in several board positions including Public Relations, Rally Chairperson, Fundraising and Statewide Group Development. In 1999, Ellie and several friends formed Find The Cause (formerly Art beCAUSE) Breast Cancer Foundation, a non-profit foundation dedicated to funding research linking breast cancer and the environment. Ellie has been a sales and marketing professional for twenty years and is an expert on networking, customer relationship building, and referral sales.
As Art beCAUSE grew in its fundraising and educational mission, it has become clear that we must FIND THE CAUSE in order to prevent the disease for future generations. In 2017, it was decided that renaming the organization Find The Cause Breast Cancer Foundation would address our increasingly urgent mission.
Ellie was honored in 2009 with Mass General Hospital’s 100 Everyday Amazing Award. In 2016, she was again honored to receive the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women Unsung Heroine Award.
Joyce Creiger
Founder Emeritus
Joyce Crieger has been involved in the arts for over thirty years. She graduated from Boston University with a degree in Art History. She was involved in the formation of the Danforth Museum in Framingham and has her own art consulting firm specializing in corporate art sales. Formerly the owner of Creiger Dane Gallery on Newbury Street, Ms. Creiger was involved in the formation of Find The Cause (formerly Art beCAUSE) Breast Cancer Foundation in 1999.
HOW THEIR STORY BEGAN…
One owned an art gallery and the other owned the breast cancer experience; in 2000 they decided together to use some of the profit from the art gallery to fund breast cancer research.
Thus, the original name “Art beCAUSE Breast Cancer Foundation”.
“Ellie was diagnosed with breast cancer in the early 1990’s. She was shocked because she thought the disease would only affect those with a family history of breast cancer. She concluded that the ailment must have been caused by something in her environment.
Joyce Creiger, Ellie’s colleague and long-time friend, is an artist who conceived the idea of linking the beauty of art with the despair of this too frequently terminal illness. They are often asked about the Foundation’s name. It originally drew from the contribution of all types of artists with a connection to the disease. A percent of the sale of their work was dedicated to the Foundation so their Art would find the CAUSE. “I still don’t understand why I got it,” Ellie has often said. “My question was and still is, ‘Why is this happening?’
Anbinder did not sit back; she sought the answer to the question and over the past ten years has dedicated her time and effort to fight the fight.
If 90% of women who are getting breast cancer don’t have any family history of the disease, then something must be happening to our bodies, something that has to do with outside environmental factors,” she said. “If we can find out the cause, we can prevent the disease for future generations.”
