This is one of an occasional series intended to paint a cumulative portrait of our Jewish community.
Individuals for this column are selected at random from the Milwaukee Jewish Federation community database. The Chronicle does not have access to donor information, or contact members of the community with regard to their giving habits.
Today we focus on Susanne Gidan.
“I love to volunteer and I love to do for others,” said Susanne “Susie” Gidan. “It’s an opportunity to work for the mission you believe in while helping others and also enriching your own life.”
Gidan “does for others” both as a volunteer and as a profession. In the latter capacity, she works as a medical social worker at the Children’s Hospital, where she has specialized in assisting people with HIV infection “since the disease was identified” in the 1980s, she said.
Then after her son, Michael Kovnar, died in 1999 at age 13 after a long struggle with cancer, Gidan decided to continue her son’s legacy as a volunteer for The Make-A-Wish Foundation of Wisconsin.
Michael became involved with the foundation when his illness made him eligible for a wish of his own. He chose to receive the best therapy that was available to him.
Michael also worked for the foundation and participated in the Walk and Run for Wishes annually for the last three years of his life. Gidan said that Michael created a database to keep in contact with his sponsors, and that he raised close to $28,000 for the foundation.
Gidan and her 22-year-old daughter, Sarah Kovnar, a first year medical student at Washington University in St. Louis, have continued Michael’s efforts.
“It’s very rewarding for us to see his real wish — that kids wishes are fulfilled — is continued,” said Gidan.
‘Not afraid to ask’
Gidan serves on the foundation’s board of directors as well as on the Medical Outreach Committee and the Wish Granting Committee; and she assists with the Walk and Run for Wishes.
“Make-A-Wish is really my primary and most rewarding volunteer project,” Gidan said of the organization. “Make-A-Wish really can change the life of a child.”
Indeed, it appears that the organization’s work has become a passion for Gidan. “Susie pours herself into projects to make sure other’s wishes come true because she understood the positive importance of a wish because she lived it through Michael,” said Patti Gorsky, president of Make-A-Wish Foundation of Wisconsin and a close friend of Gidan’s.
Gidan apparently can sell the cause to others as well. “She can finagle anything out of anybody,” Gorsky said in a lighter tone. “She’s not afraid to ask.”
Gidan lauded the organization for having no waiting list and for being able to grant all wishes. “The kid can dream,” she said. “The kid can verbalize without anyone being able to say ‘no’ or ‘that’s too much.’”
In her profession, she helps “families to get the best use out of the medical care available to them” and assists families and individuals who have “had to adjust to a chronic illness.”
Although constantly dealing with chronic illnesses is taxing and sometimes grim, Gidan doesn’t regret her choice of work.
“You can really make an impact,” she said. While “as in all jobs, you have good days and bad days. You have to learn that the work you do is to improve individuals’ lives. You also have to learn to leave it at work.”
Gidan has also done volunteer work in the Jewish community, serving as treasurer for Congregation Anshe Sfard Kehillat Torah. “Judaism has very much guided me through my life,” she said.
Gidan also said she enjoys being part of “a close-knit family” all of whose members live in the area. Her parents are in the same suburb, and her sister lives just down the street from her own home.
Gidan is the daughter of Holocaust survivors, Trudy and Eric Gidan, who came here from the Netherlands and Germany, respectively.
“They would occasionally talk to my sister and me about it, but when they came to this country they were very much encouraged to forget about it and not talk about it,” she said.
But in recent years, before her father died in 2004, Gidan’s parents began giving public speeches about their experiences, which Gidan said helped bring the family closer together. “I admire their inner strengths,” she said.
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