When Maxine Solvay was 16 years old, she bought Yogi Berra.
Not the baseball card, but the actual 15-time All-Star. The Mets wanted to hire Berra as a manager, so they put him up on waivers for $1, a formality to ensure no other team wanted him as a player. Solvay sent in the dollar—something no fan had ever done—and it led to her five minutes of fame.
“I was interviewed on TV, at radio stations across the country and I was even in the people section of Time magazine,” Solvay says. “I got to meet Yogi and I was on a pregame show with him before a Mets game. It was a hoot!”
One of two community outreach coordinators for the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center, Solvay was able to maintain that vivacity and sense of humor even when she was diagnosed with the disease. The 20-year cancer survivor says she enjoys being able to give back to the center where she was treated.
Maxine is typically involved in the organization of local cancer walks, educational series, screenings or other awareness events. She often is active when the community seeks to be educated on the disease.
Solvay is a major player in recruiting teams for various events, including the upcoming American Cancer Society Making Strides Against Breast Cancer and the Light the Night walk, the latter of which is a leukemia and lymphoma fund-raiser that took place Sept. 29. Additionally, she finds speakers for cancer-related community events, organizes screenings and coordinates an educational series called Cancer AnswerNight, in which physicians and researchers inform the community on the latest Cancer Center research.
Every year Solvay also helps plan the Cancer Center Survivors’ Day celebration in June, an event attended by some 350 people.
“Seeing how much the cancer survivors appreciate our celebration and the friendships they have made with each other and with me over the years inspires me deeply,” she says.
Another perk of her job is that she can work in the medical field and with the public at the same time. “Following my cancer experience, I wanted to work more with people. I enjoy helping people by easing their journey and getting them the information they need when they need it.” She has been working at the Comprehensive Cancer Center for 10 years, and at U-M research labs for almost all of the 30 years she has been in Ann Arbor.
When the native New Yorker is not dedicating herself to raising cancer awareness, Solvay devotes her time to playing games and traveling. She competes in mah-jongg tournaments and teaches the game to a group in Ann Arbor.
Mah-jongg originated in China and came to the United States in the first part of the 20th century. Like most trends, the tile game has experienced varying waves of popularity and only recently has been revived. Solvay, however, has been playing faithfully since she was 10 years old, when she was taught to play the four-person game with her two sisters and mother.
“It’s a very popular game among Jewish women,” Solvay says. “It’s a combination of both skill and luck. I’ve taught a lot of my friends in Ann Arbor how to play.”
Solvay entered a tournament in Deerfield, Ill., last October and ended up winning first prize. “It was $500, which was very nice. I was just in Grand Haven last weekend for another tournament, but I didn’t win that one. But I had fun.”
Solvay has fun traveling as well. For the past 10 years, she and her husband have been on trips with nature groups from Lindblad Expeditions to Africa, Antarctica, Alaska, Costa Rica and Panama.
“We’ve seen all kinds of wildlife and learned so much about foreign cultures,” Solvay says. “I remember showing our video from Antarctica to a group at work, and they commented that it was like being in a National Geographic documentary.”
