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UTICA — On Sept. 20, community members can participate in the Cassie Hines Shoes Cancer Foundation’s 14th annual Glow Run to further support advocacy and active programming for young adults as they address their cancer diagnoses.
The Cassie Hines Shoes Cancer Foundation was started in 2012 after Cassie Hines, the daughter of CHSCF Executive Director Karen Hines, passed away from a rare form of kidney cancer. Cassie Hines was in high school when she was first battling cancer and passed away when she was in college.
“So, she was a young adult who was surrounded by people that loved her and supported her, but there was still a level of isolation and loneliness that was there, and when Cassie, about two years into her treatment, went to a camp program and met other people her age that had similar experiences, different cancers but the same experience, it changed the way she was able to look at her life and just the way that she lived with cancer,” Karen Hines said. “So, before she passed away, she had said, ‘I would love for other people who have to go through what I went through to know that there’s stuff out there where they can meet people like them.’”
The foundation provides information on other organizations or programs that aim to help people, from ages 18 to 40, as they continue cancer treatment. CHSCF also hosts the Base 2 Summit program, where young adults can spend some time at a lake house on Green Lake in Interlochen and participate in different activities like hiking, biking and kayaking.
“So it’s . . . a pretty incredible experience for those young adults to meet some other people, put some tools in their chest, and send them back to their homes,” Hines said. “You know, where they have people they can lean on outside of the people that they live with that love them.”
The Glow Run was started after Cassie’s death and was originally held at Stony Creek Metropark. This year, starting at around 7:30 p.m., the run will start at Jimmy John’s Field in Utica and continue eastbound on Auburn Road to River Bends Park before returning to Jimmy John’s Field.
In preparation for this event, at the Utica City Council meeting July 8, the City Council unanimously approved the closure of Auburn Road from Utica Road to Utica Square at around sunset, subject to coordination with the Utica Police Department.
“We’ve done this pretty standard for most of the years,” Ryan Swiatkowski, a representative with the CHSCF, said. “It’s the same thing as we are doing the past … years. We’re just asking for a quick road closure just for the portion right at sunset, which is about 7:30, and for it to go about an hour at most.”
The event includes a 5K run/walk and a 1-mile fun run inside the park. Registration for the 5K costs $45 and includes a shirt, bib number and post-run refreshments. Registration for the fun run costs $30 and includes a shirt. Participants are encouraged to be at Jimmy John’s Field by 7 p.m., though Jimmy John’s Field will open at 5 p.m.
More information about the CHSCF and registration for the Glow Run is available at cassiehinesshoescancer.org/glow-run.
