Twenty-seven runners representing the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Einstein (CHAM) exceeded their team fundraising goal at the 52nd TCS New York City Marathon, raising more than $164,000 for CHAM’s Quality in Life Team (QUILT), which provides palliative care and support programs for young patients and families navigating life-threatening diagnoses.
The 2023 CHAMpions for CHAM team grew in size and fundraising power from last year, thanks to a meaningful and successful partnership with the Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to supporting pediatric cancer patients and their families, which was founded by the New York Yankees first baseman.
Rizzo, who has three MLB All-Star honors and four Gold Gloves to his name, fought and overcame Hodgkin lymphoma at age 17. “Battling a life-threatening illness gave me the resilience and tenacity to go after my dreams,” he said. The experience also taught Rizzo that caring for a seriously ill child means extending social and financial support to the child’s entire family, a lesson that inspired him to establish his foundation in 2012.
With the benefit of this partnership highlighting CHAM’s mission to provide every child we treat with compassionate care and broad-reaching family support, CHAMpions for CHAM set a lofty fundraising goal of $125,000. The team, captained by Sarah Rizzo (the ball player’s sister-in-law), far surpassed this goal by marathon day on November 5, thanks to the generosity of more than 1,050 individual donors.
Are you ready to join our CHAMpions’ ranks? Donate now through the team’s fundraising page. Interested in running next year’s marathon? Email Mary Anna Smith at maryanna.smith@einsteinmed.edu for more information on the November 3, 2024, event.
