By Laura McAlister
Journal Editor
Frequent shoppers at the Homewood Piggly Wiggly know him. He’s at the grocery store nearly every day, greeting his customers and inquiring about their families.
What many of those customers may not know, however, is that Stanley Virciglio, owner of the Homewood, Liberty Park and Crestline Piggly Wiggly grocery stores, battled cancer and won.
Stanley, 77, is this year’s American Cancer Society’s Hope Gala Honoree. The gala is the cancer society’s largest fundraiser and will be Aug. 20 at 6 p.m. at the Vestavia Country Club. Each year, the Hope Gala committee chooses an honoree who is a role model in the community and to those fighting cancer.
The fact that Stanley is a cancer survivor and that he and his family contribute in various ways to the community made him an obvious choice for this year’s honoree, said Lisa Smith Sharp, chairman of the 2011 Hope Gala.
“Mr. Virciglio epitomizes the foundation of the Hope Gala and hope itself,” she said. “A cancer survivor, he and his family, both personally and professionally, have been the driving force in better schools for the Over the Mountain community, charitable efforts from the United Way to Juvenile Diabetes to the University of Alabama and of course, the American Cancer Society.
“Through his own overwhelmingly generous contributions of time, money and heartfelt effort, he has changed many lives through truly inspirational behavior and lending a helping hand to his fellow man regardless of status and position.”
Stanley said he was thrilled when he was asked to serve as this year’s Hope Gala honoree. He knows firsthand how frightening a cancer diagnosis can be.
In 2000, the Vestavia Hills resident was diagnosed with prostate cancer, the same cancer that took his father’s life.
“I’ll never forget,” he said. “The doctor was very blunt, like he needed to be. He told me to come back and bring my wife, ‘you have cancer.’ He gave me three options. I could do nothing, do the seed therapy or take it all out and do the radical. I asked him what he would tell his son.”
The doctor recommended the radical surgery, in which the whole gland and lymph nodes are removed. Stanley took his advice.
On Nov. 16, he had the surgery. Fortunately, he had caught the cancer early, and none of it had spread.
He credits that to the nurses at St. Vincent’s Hospital who treated his father when he had prostate cancer.
“They told me then that I needed to get checked, and get checked often,” he said. “I did. Early detection was key. I didn’t have to have chemo or anything.”
This November will be 11 years since his surgery. Stanley is still cancer free and has had only a few minor health problems since then.
He still travels with his family frequently and plays golf, and he’s still at the Homewood Piggly Wiggly nearly every day.
As honoree of the Hope Gala, he gets to designate some of the funds raised from the event to a particular area of the American Cancer Society. Stanley chose the Hope Lodge, a place for families from out of town to stay for free while their loved ones undergo treatments.
“A cancer diagnosis can really destroy a family anyway, so this place is really a blessing,” he said. “The Hope Lodge has been around 10 or 11 years, and it could really use some remodeling. I hope we can raise some money to do that.”
