Franklin Square residents are ‘Women of Distinction’

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Two Franklin Square women were honored on Sept. 14 for the work they have done for their community and for their country at Assemblyman Ed Ra’s annual Women of Distinction ceremony.

“Too often, the hard work of Long Island’s most selfless residents goes unrecognized,” Ra said in a statement, “so having the opportunity to celebrate two Franklin Square women of distinction … is an honor.”

Kristy Bourne-Jaime

Kristy Bourne-Jaime said she didn’t even realize how much she does for the Franklin Square community until she was sitting on the stage at the ceremony last weekend.

“I was very taken aback,” she recalled. “I’m not the type of person who likes the spotlight.”

Bourne-Jaime, 39, first started volunteering when she was laid off from her job more than 15 years ago. She was inspired, she said, by her son’s Little League coaches and wanted to keep herself busy.

She then became involved in the Polk Street Elementary School Parent Teacher Association, and is now serving as its co-president, along with Kristin Tirotti. Together, they help organize events for the school.

“She’s probably the most caring,” Tirotti said of Bourne-Jaime, adding that she is “100 percent devoted to our school community and making it a great place for the parents and children.”

Bourne-Jaime also serves as the first vice president of the Franklin Square Interschool Council and as co-service unit volunteer manager for the Franklin Square-West Hempstead Girl Scout troop. She was previously a T-ball coach and an assistant for the religious school at St. Catherine of Sienna.

When she volunteers, she said, she tries to get others in the community to help out as well. “Even if you give an hour or a half-hour, that could make a difference,” Bourne-Jaime explained. “It makes our town a better place.”

Jacqueline Botta

While Bourne-Jaime tries to improve Franklin Square, Jacqueline Botta focuses her efforts more globally. The college freshman has worked with NephCure Kidney International for the past few years to fund research into a cure for nephrotic syndrome.

Jacqueline, who is now 18, was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome —an umbrella term that describes irreversible damage to the kidneys’ filters — in 2016. At the time, she experienced low energy, swelling and stomach pain, and after a week, she had to be rushed to the hospital for dehydration from vomiting. That is when a doctor told her she has focal segmental glomerulosclerosis, a disorder that occurs when the kidney filters stretch out and scar. There is no known cause of the disease, and it is incurable.

“Inevitably, I’m going to need a kidney transplant,” Jacqueline explained.

But she continued to attend H. Frank Carey High School and was on the Pirettes kickline team. She graduated in June, and is now attending school at Western Connecticut State University, where she is studying medicine.

“Sometimes she looks so normal, you forget that she’s sick,” her mother, Marlene, said. “You meet her, and you don’t think she’s sick, but inside her body is attacking itself.”

To help find a cure for her and the 37 million other patients with chronic kidney disease, Jacqueline has spent the past four years advocating for awareness and research into the disorder. She has met with Ra and State Sen. Anna Kaplan to have March 27 recognized as Nephrotic Awareness Day, and created a “Kidney Fight Club” Instagram group, where 14 young adults can talk about their lives with nephrotic syndrome. “The first rule of Kidney Fight Club is, ‘You must talk about Kidney Fight Club,’” Marlene joked.

Jacqueline and Marlene also organize the annual NephCure Walk at Eisenhower Park every year, and were recently in Washington D.C. to ask federal officials to increase funding to the National Institutes of Health, keep FSGS on the Department of Defense’s research list and pass the Live Donor Protection Act, which would ensure that live organ donors are covered by their health insurance.

Throughout the day, Jacqueline had to relive her diagnosis every time she spoke to a new elected official. “She explains it to people in such a way that you want to hear what she has to say,” Marlene said, but “it is honestly her dream not to have this anymore and for nobody to find out how bad it is.”