Hellertown Resident Named 'Man of the Year'

Hellertown resident Dan Dortic has been named the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) of Eastern Pennsylvania's 2012 "Man of the Year," the society announced in a press release recently.

The winners of the cancer charity's Man & Woman of the Year competition were announced June 21 at a gala celebration at SteelStacks in Bethlehem.

For 10 weeks, the nine local candidates who competed for the titles of Man & Woman of the Year utilized their leadership abilities to conduct their own fundraising campaigns for LLS, with each dollar raised counting as one vote. The male and female candidates with the most votes at the end of the period were named the Man & Woman of the Year, respectively.

The nine candidates collectively raised $157,000.

In addition to Dortic, Eileen Budd of Bethlehem claimed the title of Woman of the Year.

This year’s fundraising was in honor of two patient heroes--the 2012 Boy & Girl of the Year--who were identified by the society as Braden Sell of Quakertown and Coco Lazaridis of Bethlehem.

Money raised from the contest will benefit LLS’s mission to cure blood cancers and improve the quality of life for patients and their families, the society said.

“We are so grateful for the commitment and generosity of these nine fine men and women who took a 10-week journey with us to challenge themselves to raise money for a lifesaving cancer research,” said Maida R. Milone, the Executive Director of the Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the LLS.