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- Category: Past Issues
captions:
Amelia Klopfenstein, 5, of Moosup tries her hand at jump rope at the Hale Y. More photos on page 4. Linda Lemmon photo.
Vera Robin, 6, and her sister Lianna Robin, 3, of Putnam show off their medals from the Kid Run. Linda Lemmon photo.
PUTNAM — The Hale YMCA 2022 Road to Wellness fund-raiser blasted its goal wide open, pulling in $42,000.
“This is the Hale YMCA’s largest fund-raising event, which raises money to support the Y’s wellness programs; specifically, the LIVEStrong Cancer Survivor program,” said Hale Y Executive director Amanda Kelly.
She added: “Sunday’s Road to Wellness event was by far our biggest success ever, doubling our previous goals and far exceeding this year’s expectations! The success was due to the outpouring of community support both in sponsors and participation but also in ‘peer to peer’ fund-raising. Our main sponsors were Day Kimball Healthcare as our Road to Wellness sponsor and Centreville Bank as our Kids Fun Run sponsor.”
The Kids Fun Run was a new edition this year, she said, allowing community families and children to participate. Northeast Opportunities for Wellness (NOW) joined the YMCA as a community partner to help facilitate the Kids Fun Run on the Putman River Trail. While the weather deterred some, 25 children and their families came out to run the chilly ½ mile course and receive a “really cool Y medal.”
The other two opportunities to participate were a 2-hour spin and a 30-mile road bike ride. More than 50 people spun or rode to raise money for this cause. There were more than 20 people with personal stories who contributed to the fund-raising. Most notably, Kelley said, “We had two separate teams with very powerful stories of family members or friends going through cancer treatment that love the Y. Between the two teams, they raised over $15,000, helping to bring the total to just over $42,000.
The LIVEStrong program is a free 12-week program that supports cancer survivors by teaching them how to safely regain strength and connect them to others who have similar shared experiences. After the program ends, the participants graduate and many of them choose to continue their memberships at the Y, coming in when the next cohort begins to serve as role models.
Kelly said: “The LIVEStrong program showcases the best of what the Y has to offer. Cancer treatment is just the start of recovery for someone with a cancer diagnosis. The LIVEStrong program picks up where treatment ends to teach a new way of living with cancer. The positive impact that we see is second to none. Since the Y opened in 2016, we have graduated over 200 participants, many still with the Y today”.
This year’s mission speaker, Beth Reinhart, said she could barely walk from the front door of the Y to the Wellness Center when she joined the LIVEStrong program in January. By the end of the 12-week program she was able to walk a lot easier, found programs that fit her needs and made lifelong friends. She came to discover that she was not the only person who was going through this terrible disease and learned to embrace the new her.
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