Organizers of the 28th annual Cancer Walk-a-Thon hope to see close to 1,000 participants Saturday.
The fundraiser collected nearly $190,000 for the Connelly Hospitality House and the San Juan Medical Foundation last year, annual giving coordinator Brenda Medley said.
"Our goal is $200,000," she said.
Participants solicit donations from family, friends and co-workers for their efforts in the roughly five-mile walk. People will walk from the Farmington Civic Center to Berg Park and back on Saturday morning.
The walk-a-thon helps support the cancer center and cancer patients in the area.
The San Juan Medical Foundation was instrumental in starting the San Juan Regional Cancer Center, which opened in 1987, Medley said. It has donated equipment to the facility for the last 20 years.
The Connelly Hospitality House provides a place for patients at the center and their families to stay while they receive radiation treatment, a process that can last between five and eight weeks, Medley said.
The walk is an event that helps people like Helen Begay, who is staying at the Connelly Hospitality House while she receives radiation treatment for cancer found in her foot earlier this year.
Commuting from home was not an option for the 80-year-old great-grandmother from Lukachukai, Ariz.
"It was just going to be way too much gas," her granddaughter, Cheryl Stout, said.
Stout and other family members visit Begay during the week and take her to
their homes for visits. The house is something that makes treatment more practical because the commute would otherwise be close to two hours one way, Stout said.
"She feels like she's at home," Stout said of her grandmother. "She's very comfortable here. Everything is provided."
That's the goal of the house, manager Leslie Fitz said.
Fitz and a team of 60 volunteers work to provide everything except food and clothes for the eight families who stay at the house.
"It's just a home away from home," Fitz said.
Brendan Giusti: bgiusti@daily-times.com
IF YOU GO:
What: 28th annual Cancer Walk-a-Thon to benefit the San Juan Medical Foundation and the Connelly Hospitality House
When: Registration is 7 a.m. Saturday. The walk begins at 8 a.m.
For more information visit www.sanjuanmedicalfoundation.com or call (505) 609-2274. To see more of The Daily Times, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.daily-times.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Daily Times, Farmington, N.M. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.
Copyright (C) 2009, The Daily Times, Farmington, N.M.