By Mark Boshnack
Staff Writer
Heart disease strikes people of all ages, organizers of an upcoming fundraiser said.
Those who attend Saturday's American Heart Association's "America's Greatest Heart Run & Walk" will be able to do something about that.
The event will take place from 9 a.m. to noon at the Dewar Arena at the Alumni Fieldhouse at State University College at Oneonta. This includes an outdoor 5K Run that begins at 10:30 a.m.
The minimum amount of $25 in pledges for participants 18 years and older is required at registration. Community sponsors include Bassett Healthcare Network and The Daily Star.
This year's honoree is 13-year-old Conner Tavarone, a seventh grader at Oneonta Middle School. He was born with a heart defect, truncus arteriosus, and had open heart surgery at 8 days old, his mother, Kelly Tavarone, said.
She has participated in the fundraising walks since her son was born, she said. She is now on the committee for the local walk.
"We know the money goes to research," Tavarone said. "We support them because they support us."
Without the research and education funded by the Heart Association through these types of events, her son's life would have been different, she said.
"They find better ways to take care of what he needs," she said.
"It's cool," Conner said about having so many people hear his story. Because of advances made through funding provided by the American Heart Association, he is able to lead an active life, he said.
Conner plays baseball and is on the middle school basketball team. He can't play any full-body contact sports, like football, he said. Conner said the only other impact from the disease is that he gets more tired than others his age. Otherwise, he said, he doesn't think about it often.
He will be needing another surgery within the next five years because the branch for a pulmonary artery, which was missing at birth but grafted on, is not keeping up with his growth, his mother said. A stent was put in about 31/2 years ago, she said.
The walk is one of about 450 nationwide that will be held this year to raise money for research and education, said Heart Association Corporate Events Director Anne Ellis Milograno, who is based in Utica.
The Oneonta event has been held for about nine years and usually raises between $20,000 to $30,000, she said.
It is part of about $1 million that is raised through the agency's Utica office, which started holding walks about 40 years ago, Milograno said.
"If (Conner) had been born 20 to 30 years earlier, there wouldn't have been anything that could have been done for him," she said. Instead, surgical procedures and medications have allowed him to essentially lead "a normal life," she said.
For more information, call the Heart Association at (315) 266-5403. The event registration form will be available at www.thedailystar.com.
