Mark Enyart, a 15-year-old freshman at Episcopal High School and Life Scout with Troop 55 of the Boy Scouts of America in Houston, has donated over 1,100 movies to the Memorial Hermann Cancer Center-Texas Medical Center in honor of his father’s memory.
Mark’s father, Lee Enyart, was only 49 years old when he was diagnosed with stage IV prostate cancer. After a long and hard three-year battle, Mr. Enyart passed away in August 2011. The donation, part of Mark’s Eagle Scout service project, includes the alphabetized and catalogued DVDs along with 20 individual DVD players, headsets and headset splitters so multiple people can watch and listen to the movies together.
“It is clear to me that this project is meaningful not just to our family, but for the greater community,” said Mark Enyart. “For our family, I think it provides comfort in knowing that other patients will have a more comfortable stay during their chemo days and it is a tangible way for us to honor my dad. It is my hope that the cancer patients will embrace this library and explore the wide range of movie possibilities.”
A dedication ceremony for the new “J. Lee Enyart, Jr. Memorial Video Library” took place on December 13, during which time Robert J. Amato, DO, Chief of the Division of Oncology at Memorial Hermann Cancer Center-Texas Medical Center and Acting Director of the Division of Oncology at UTHealth Medical School, who was Mr. Enyart’s oncologist, thanked Mark for his generosity.
“It is a real honor for us to have the Enyart family as part of ours, and to be able to host this generous project,” Dr. Amato said. “Mark took it upon himself to do this incredibly significant thing, and we are all very thankful.”
Both Mark and his mother, Angela Enyart, spoke at the event as well. Both expressed how rewarding the project had been and how grateful they were for all of the support from the Boy Scouts, the Cancer Center and the community.