There will be a half-mile run for kids 4-11 starting at 10:00 a.m. The 5K walk/run starts at 10:30 a.m. Register now!

This will be a family event with all kinds of activities: face painting, 50/50 raffle, basket and gift certificate raffles, and vendors. Free massage therapy will also be available. Awards in the 5K for first overall female and male, as well as 1st, 2nd, 3rd places in each age category.

Online registration is available now at the Mid-Hudson Road Runner’s Club website.

Click to download the flier for complete details.

If you have questions, email mohrun@hotmail.com.

If you would like to volunteer, email mohrunvols@hotmail.com.

Tribute Miles Markers are available for a $50 donation. Mile Marker signs are displayed during the race in honor of, or in memory of, a friend or loved one who has battled breast cancer. Click to order a Mile Marker.

You can make a donation online at the Mid-Hudson Road Runners’ Club website. All proceeds go to Miles of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation.

While we greatly prefer online registration, if you wish to register via mail, you can download the flier/entry form.

“This is an opportunity to recognize the family member, friend, or colleague who is integral to the recovery of the breast cancer patient,” explained Pari Forood, Executive Director of Miles of Hope.

“We are asking anyone who has been through treatment for breast cancer to nominate their angel by sending us a testimonial with photos if they have them, explaining how their angel helped them. It does not have to be a long narrative. We will make a video of breast cancer angels and their nominator to be previewed at the 8^th Annual Spring Brunch on May 6, at the Grandview in Poughkeepsie. The video will then be available for viewing at the Miles of Hope website at www.milesofhope.org,” she continued.

All entries must be received by e-mail to info@milesofhope.org by April 10, 2012, and all photos/testimonials become property of Miles of Hope. There is no fee and attendance at the Brunch is not required.

“Every time I speak with a breast cancer survivor, they tell me about the person or people who helped them. We feel it is time to bring that person into the limelight,” said Cathy Varunok, Co-founder of Miles of Hope.

Survivors are honored at half time.

Everyone, please join us on Sunday, February 12 at 2:00 PM to cheer on the Marist Women’s Basketball team during their “Play 4Kay Breast Cancer Awareness Game” against Siena.

Breast Cancer survivors are asked to pre-register for the Half Time Honor with Marist Assistant Athletics Director Frank Lombardy. Email Frank.Lombardy@marist.edu or call (845) 575-3699 x2329. Registration will also be available on the day of the game after entry. Survivors will be recognized during a special half time ceremony.

Bring your camera, video camera or smart phone and shoot photos and videos of fans and players at the game! Whoever takes the best video or the best photo will win a prize from Miles of Hope! Upload your videos to YouTube, or post your photos publicly on ShutterFly with the tag “MOHPlay4Kay2012″ and email a link to your material to info@milesofhope.org. Submission deadline: The Wednesday after the game.

All fans are encouraged to wear pink and everyone gets a pink ribbon. There will be a raffle for prizes and memorabilia, plus a 50/50 raffle. All proceeds from this event will benefit Miles of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation.

The Marist women’s basketball team will be wearing special pink uniforms and shoe laces in commemoration of the breast cancer awareness game.

Register for Hoops for Hope March 10 at the Play 4Kay Breast Cancer Awareness Game.

Event Info
Play 4Kay Breast Cancer Awareness Game
McCann Recreation Center
Marist College
3399 North Rd., Poughkeepsie NY [map]
Sunday, February 12
2:00 PM

Register a Team Online | Register a Team on Paper | Join a Team | Donate to the Event | Advertise | Sponsor the Event | Volunteer | email Hoopsforhope@optonline.net

Each year Hoops for Hope is dedicated to an individual who exemplifies the spirit of our event. This year’s Honoree is 12 year breast cancer survivor and Miles of Hope volunteer, Cathi DeLeon. Cathi lives in the Dutchess County town of LaGrange with her husband Raoul. She has two grown children. When she is not running the concession stand at Hoops for Hope or captaining the Breast Cancer Boat at the Dragon Boat races every summer at Peekskill Days Celebration, or helping at other Miles of Hope events, she works at the Vail Farm Elementary School in the Arlington Central School District as an Administrative Assistant to the Principal.

Miles of Hope recently appointed Marist College senior Public Relations/Advertising student, Lindsey Sacco, to work as their Social Media Intern. One of Lindsey’s first assignments was to create a Twitter account for Miles of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation. By using Twitter, Miles of Hope will be able to “tweet” about upcoming fundraising events and organizational news.

Miles of Hope's profile on Twitter

Through this online interaction, Miles of Hope will be creating greater awareness of the organization. It provides funding to non-profit organizations for support services and outreach for people affected by breast cancer in New York’s Hudson Valley, including Columbia, Dutchess, Putnam, Westchester, Rockland, and Orange, Ulster and Greene counties. The Miles of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation is a non-profit, 501-c-3 public charity established in March of 2004.

Using Twitter will allow the foundation to stimulate curiosity among the Twitter community and encourage their audience to learn more about Miles of Hope’s mission.  Twitter will help Miles of Hope build and strengthen their relationship with the public and inspire increased discussion, action, knowledge and fundraising event attendance among their Twitter “followers” and Twitter users who monitor Hudson Valley event-related and breast cancer-related “hash tags” (topics).

The symbol for Miles of Hope on Twitter is @milesofhopebcf and the link is: twitter.com/milesofhopebcf

Lindsey will also help maintain the Miles of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation Facebook page, which already has more than one thousand fans.

The evening will include a cocktail hour featuring signature cocktails, passed hors d’oeuvres, sparkling wines, beer, and soda, followed by a five-course meal with carefully selected wines. Live music for your listening and dancing pleasure will be performed by The Big Band Sound.

The price for this fabulous event is $90 per person. For more information and for reservations, please click here to visit the CIA website.

Invite your Facebook friends to this event!

Published in The Poughkeepsie Journal, 2011

Studies have shown that the better your physical condition, the less likely you are to succumb to heart disease and certain types of cancer including breast cancer. At the Miles of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation, we make it our business to encourage women to get on the court, field, track and in the lake by sponsoring tournaments for all abilities and all ages. Hoops for Hope Women’s Basketball Tournament, Family Fun Run, Miles of Hope Triathlon, Goals for Hope Women’s Soccer Tournament and the Community Walk for Breast Cancer challenge women whether competitive by nature or by necessity to get into shape and embrace a healthy active lifestyle.

However if there is breast cancer in your family, or if you are deemed high risk for the disease by any number of markers, is there something you can do proactively to prevent it?

Women who are at high risk for breast cancer that is fueled by the hormone estrogen could reduce their risk of getting cancer by taking the hormone-blocking drug Aromasin, according to a study presented at a conference in Chicago in June of this year.

Women are considered to be at high risk for breast cancer if they are older than 60, postmenopausal and/or have had abnormal breast biopsies in which there are some lesions.

“We proved that exemestane (Aromasin) reduced the risk of invasive breast cancer by 65%,” said lead author Dr. Paul Goss, who is a breast cancer specialist at Boston’s Massachusetts General Hospital. Goss presented his research at the annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. The study has also been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

According to Dr. Julia Schaefer-Cutillo, oncologist at the Dyson Cancer Center, and a Miles of Hope Board member, Aromasin is one of three drugs in the class of drugs called aromatase inhibitors, which block the production of estrogen in postmenopausal women.

“Two other estrogen-blocking drugs exist,” she explained, “but few women use them to prevent breast cancer because there are rare but serious possible side effects, such as an increased risk of uterine cancer and blood clots.”

Previous studies showed that the cancer drug tamoxifen reduced the risk of getting breast cancer in older women by 50% and the osteoporosis drug raloxifene reduced the risk by 38% after five years of taking the drugs.

Exemestane, better known under the brand name Aromasin, was found to have fewer side effects than tamoxifen, according to Goss. His study enrolled 4,560 healthy postmenopausal women at high risk for breast cancer in a placebo-controlled, double-blinded clinical trial. The 65% risk reduction was found after women had been taking the drugs for only three years.

“This is the first study to show that a new class of drugs called aromatase inhibitors has the ability to prevent breast cancer in high-risk women,” said Dr. Jennifer Litton, who is a breast cancer specialist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and is not connected to the research.

Litton says she prescribes tamoxifen in her practice and believes it’s a very good and very affordable drug. But when she tells women about the possible side effects like uterine cancer, “it definitely scares women away, even though the incidence of these side effects is really rare.” She hopes more women in the high-risk category will now be open to taking a cancer-preventing drug like Aromasin.

Dr. Schaefer-Cutillo who works with cancer patients on their chemotherapy says that prevention is the next big news in cancer care. “The new research currently being conducted around the world is focusing on preventing cancer, shrinking tumors with specific drug protocols, and creating particular therapies for each individual patient. We are making great strides in this area and I am thrilled to be able to offer it to my patients.”

DBS Employees with the check for Miles of Hope: Nadine Wiese, Mike Whalen, Jennifer Booth, Justin Noyes, Shane Kip, Chad “Jr.” McLain, Rob Wheeler, Bob Lutz, Maureen Bliss, Pete Viola & Brian Altmann

DBS Remodel of LaGrange, Dutchess County, decided it was high time they stepped up and recognized all of the people in their company and families who were affected by breast cancer.
Owner, Brian Altmann, decided the best way to honor those individuals would be to have a charity golf tournament and donate the proceeds to the Miles of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation.
“We knew that we wanted to have an event and we knew that our customers and suppliers liked to play golf, so we put the two together and had a fundraising day out at Casperkill Country Club,” Altmann explained.
Rob Wheeler, Chairman of the Tournament and a long time DBS employee said he had personal reasons to get involved:
“My mother was diagnosed 8 years ago,” Wheeler explained, “and I knew, once I read about Miles of Hope, that I wanted to donate money to them. They are the only local organization which gives the donations directly to the people who need them.”
The tournament took place in late October with 65 participants.
“We were thrilled when DBS contacted us and named us the recipient of the proceeds,” Pari Forood, Exec. Dir. of Miles of Hope explained. “They had a silent auction as part of the dinner after golf and a custom made guitar was created and donated just for this event. It was painted with our logo and bright pink!”

East Coast Salon Staff

The East Coast Salon, 2776 West Main St. Wappingers Falls, NY, raised $2500 for the Miles of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation during a cut-a-thon held at the salon.

“We have a few clients who have had breast cancer and we wanted to do something special for them as well as for this worthy local charity,” Sue Gasperini, owner of the salon said.

“We came up with the idea of a cut-a-thon along with pink hair extensions and the staff was very excited.”

Miles of Hope is a 501-c-3 public charity with a mission to fund support services for people affected by breast cancer in the eight counties of the Hudson Valley.

“When Sue called to say they had raised over $2000, we were so impressed!” stated Miles of Hope Executive Director Pari Forood. “Many salons in the Hudson Valley run promotions for us especially during October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month and this year with 20 salons participating we received more donations than ever before in the foundation’s eight year history.”

Miles of Hope has given away more than one million dollars in eight years for support programs for people affected by breast cancer in the eight counties of the Hudson Valley.

Cathy Varunok, Athena 2011 Nominee

Miles of Hope Co-founder Cathy Varunok is among the nominees for the 2011 ATHENA award, to be presented by The Chamber Foundation.

The 2011 ATHENA nominees were chosen because of their strengths in career excellence and leadership, community volunteer involvement and willingness to serve as a mentor, especially to women in the business community.

The Chamber Foundation, Inc., a not-for-profit organization of the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce, will present the award  on Sunday, December 4 during a special brunch at The Grandview in Poughkeepsie, NY.  The recipient of the award will travel to the ATHENA International conference in Chicago to represent the Hudson Valley region.

For more information, see the announcement on the DCRCOC website.

Cathy Varunok, Co-Founder of Miles of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation with Caryn Solomon, St. Francis Hospital nurse at the Athena Awards cocktail reception on November 30, 2011 at the Vassar College Alumnae House. The two women have been nominated for outstanding personal and community achievements in their respective professions by the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce.