By Cathy Green
“Here she comes, Miss America,” is how a volunteer at the Philadelphia Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure is greeted on her twice-weekly visits.
“That’s what we call her,” said a young woman, hugging 90-year-old Pearl Novick. “She’s a wonder.”
Novick shrugs off praise, just as she does any suggestion that her age has its drawbacks.
“Not many things bother me any more,” she said with a dismissive gesture.
Novick is a volunteer at the organization, which describes itself as “the world’s largest and most progressive network of breast cancer survivors and activists.” She is both a survivor and an activist. She was diagnosed with breast cancer 17 years ago, and proudly wears the pink ribbon pin identifying her status.
She and her late husband, Irving, moved to Philadelphia from New York in 1993 to be near their daughter and grandchildren (she also has a son, who lives in California).
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“I was always a volunteer, so I started looking for something here,” she said. “When I saw the Komen ad, I knew that was for me.”
That was 10 years ago, and she has been an integral part of the organization ever since. She handles a variety of duties, spending at least two days a week in the office. She also talks to other breast cancer survivors, encouraging them to be hopeful.
“I know what they’ve been through,” she said.
What she likes best about volunteering, she said, is working with “these wonderful young women — staff and volunteers.”
Novick participates (not as a competitor) in the annual Komen Philadelphia Race for the Cure, when throngs of pink-shirted survivors and supporters flood the Parkway and Kelly Drive each Mother’s Day.
She was among Komen Affiliate volunteers honored at a Philadelphia Orchestra concert at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts on June 28, one day after her 90th birthday.
And what does she do when not on duty?
“Oh, I just hang around,” she said. “I have friends ... I keep busy.”
By Don Harrison
Two current exhibitions recognize the achievements of one of Philadelphia’s great ladies, as she approaches her 100th birthday.
• At The Academy of Natural Sciences, where she still reports to work almost daily, you have until Oct. 17 to see “Ruth Patrick: 74 Years at the Academy.”
• At the Museum of the American Philosophical Society, she is one of the scientists highlighted in “UNDAUNTED: Five American Explorers, 1760-2007,” an exhibition running until the end of next year.
Dr. Patrick is a pioneer in techniques of studying the health of bodies of water and was the first scientist to show that biodiversity is the keystone of a healthy ecosystem.
One colleague described her as the “den mother of ecology.”
The Academy of Natural Sciences exhibit includes her pith helmet, hip waders and other tools of the trade, including the diatometer, a portable device she invented to collect diatoms, single-celled algae she found useful in studying the effects of water pollution. The Academy’s Patrick Center for Environmental Research is a world leader in studying ecosystems and environmental quality.
The Academy of Natural Sciences, at 1900 Benjamin Franklin Pkwy., is open Mondays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4:30 pm., and weekends, 10 to 5.
Admission for seniors is $8; for most other adults, $10; for children, college students and military personnel, $8.
In the exhibit at the Museum of the American Philosophical Society, 104 S. 5th St., Patrick is the only woman and only living person among the “Five American Explorers” featured — all of whom are members of the society.
The others are David Rittenhouse, astronomer and instrument maker; John James Audubon, artist and author of The Birds of America; Titian Ramsay Peale, artist, naturalist and museum curator; and Elisha Kent Kane, physician and Arctic explorer. Among items on display are one of Patrick’s diatometers.
“UNDAUNTED” is open to the public Fridays through Sundays, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There is no admission fee; donations welcome.
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