CARMEL — Carmel residents Robin Walsh and Jenny Pickett met when their daughters became friends.

Soon they would share another tie, each has lost a parent to pancreatic cancer. Walsh’s father, Robert Rieger, died 19 months ago at age 66. Pickett’s mother, Joyce Fox Jordan, had died 15 years prior to his death.

“When my dad was going through it, we realized they (Rieger and Jordan) received the same treatment. There were no improvements in treatment (during the span),” Walsh said.

Thus, a mission was born. This is the second year Walsh and Pickett have organized a fundraiser for The Jordan-Rieger Fund for Pancreatic Cancer Research through the Purdue University Center for Cancer Research. The fundraiser will be at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in a banquet hall at Marian Inc., 1011 E. St. Clair St., Indianapolis.

* Brochure on Jordan-Rieger Fund for Pancreatic Cancer Research *

“The room has all-glass windows and you can see the Indianapolis’ cityscape,” Walsh said.

The event will include a dinner, a Purdue Varsity Glee Club performance, and live and silent auctions. Cost is $50 per person. For tickets, contact Beth Steurer at steurered@purdue.edu.

The fundraiser raised about $25,000 last year, Walsh said.

“That helped them form the Pancreatic Cancer Working Group,” he said. “This group has now started collaborating with Indiana University.”