Jay's World Walk Benefits Young Patients

Charles Water Karate and Fitness offered Break-a-thon during the Jay's World Walk on September 17. For $5 each, participants had the opportunity to break a wooden block. All proceeds went toWinthrop'sCancerCenterfor Kids.

Approximately 100 Long Islanders came out to show their support when Jay's World Childhood Cancer Foundation hosted a 3-mile walk to raise money for children with cancer on Sunday, September 17, 2006. The walk, which took place at Mineola Memorial Park on Marcellus Road in Mineola, raised almost $10,000 for Winthrop-University Hospital's Cancer Center for Kids.

Participants paid $25-$35 per person to participate, and brought in donations from individual sponsors as well.

Jay's World Childhood Cancer Foundation Inc., was created by Ralph and MaryAnn Napolitano after their son Jason ("Jay") was confronted with the diagnosis of leukemia and the fight of his life when he was just 14 years old.

"It is our goal to see that all that can be done is being done, and that no child succumbs to the disease due to a lack of support. This is our pledge and to this end we are committed," says MaryAnn Napolitano.

Jason - who is now 27 years old - battled mightily for three and a half years, sometimes being hospitalized for months at a time. "I told God that if He would help my child, I would find a way to help other children," MaryAnn remembers.

The mission of the foundation is to raise funds to benefit children and help support the fight against childhood cancer. The Foundation awards a scholarship each year to a child who has or has had cancer and is continuing on to college. Funds also support local hospitals that specialize in pediatric oncology and hematology and the children they are treating.

For more information about the Foundation, contact foundation president Jason A. Napolitano at (516) 297-5328 or visit www.jaysworld.org. For more information about Winthrop's Cancer Center for Kids call 1-866-WINTHROP.