VDF Goes to the Windy City

On October 22, the 28th annual LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon took place in the Windy City. VDF was one the charities selected as an "official charity" for the event. Twenty-six runners from all over the county made up "Team VDF," whose members were the first group of individuals to run in a marathon to raise money for vascular disease education.

The members of this incredible team ran the 26.2 miles of the marathon and helped to raise over $14,080 for VDF at this inaugural event. VDF also had an information table during the race, staffed with volunteers who made thousands of spectators aware of the work and mission of the foundation.

The top fundraisers for Team VDF included Dr. Timothy Harward, a vascular surgeon from Orange County, CA, who sees patients in the end stages of vascular disease when they are at risk of losing a limb, have a stroke, or die needlessly from a rupture of a large aortic aneurysm. Dr. Harward was the top fund-raiser for VDF, bringing in $3,205 in donations, most of this from his patients, and also from St. Joseph Hospital, who support his efforts.

"My hope by running for the Vascular Disease Foundation is to raise money for increased awareness of vascular disease and provide education," said Dr. Harward. "If we can help patients to seek medical attention long before they reach the end stages of their disease, it will make it easier to treat their problems."

Patricia Lewis is a nurse practitioner from Hartwick, NY, who works in prime/care, internal medicine at Bassett Healthcare in Cooperstown, NY. She has worked at Bassett for about 16 years as a member of its vascular surgery staff. Lewis was the second top fund-raiser, raising $1,204 for the foundation.

"Even though I've been running for over ten years, this is only my second marathon," said Lewis. "My sister asked me to run with her in Chicago and I agreed. I've known the Vascular Disease Foundation since its early days and decided to join Team VDF."

"Once we were selected as an official charity, we started promoting it through our contacts, Web site, and quarterly newsletter. Of greatest help getting runners for us were our member organizations, all of which announced the program to their members," said Sheryl Benjamin, executive director of Vascular Disease Foundation. "We are thrilled that these runners were the first group ever to join efforts to raise awareness about vascular disease."

VDF would like to thank all of the runners for their hard work and dedication to this momentous event. In addition to Tim Harward and Patty Lewis, other Team VDF members were Frank Arko, Ron Bays, Russell Becker, Ben Bedsole, Javier Benitez, Lexie Cox, Mike Darcy, Susan Darcy, Annie Fu, Frances Gilday, Dawn Johnson, Ken Korber, Betty Kraeger, Robert McBane, Peter McCullough, Maha McCullough, Douglas B. Owens, Jorge Pereyra, Amy Pesa, John Pesa, Kevin Pratt, Todd Shirmang, Jason Wang, and Marcus Zwilling. Although the race is over, VDF is still accepting donations online at www.vdf.org.

Want to be part of Team VDF in next year's LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon? Set the date for Sunday, October 7th. Registration begins in early January.