Stephanie L. Miner Walk celebrates "Sweet Sixteen"
More than 600 community members, students and SLV Health employees gathered in Cole Park in Alamosa on Saturday, Sept. 21 and supported the 16th annual Stephanie L. Miner 5k Run/Walk.
Stephanie Miner was a valued community member, public school teacher, wife and mother of four who lost her four-year-long battle with breast cancer. From 2004 to 2006, the funds raised during the walk by the SLV Health Foundation were used to finance the construction and opening of the Imaging Center. Since then, the funds raised from the event continue to stay local, and this year will go towards the 3-D Mammography Unit located in the Stephanie L. Miner’s Women’s Imaging Center at SLV Health in Alamosa.
The event kicked off under beautiful skies as SLV Health Foundation Vice President Jacki Kennedy welcomed the crowd. Dr. Jason Allen, a board-certified radiologist, explained how beneficial having the new 3-D Mammography Unit at SLV Health is for the community. The SLV Health Awards and Recognition Committee presented its annual Community Partnership Award to the SLV Quilt Guild for their time and efforts to make quilts for the patients undergoing cancer treatments at the hospital.
The event was truly a community-based one, with many different groups coming together to help make it successful. The Adams State University Athletic Department had a number of different student athletes volunteering their time to set up and break down the event. The annual quilt auction, featuring a quilt especially designed by Bev Hettinger for this year’s walk, was a great success, with Rosalie Martinez being named the highest bidder. After the walk, people enjoyed a baked potato bar with the potatoes donated by the Miner family; red and green chili donated by Ronnie and Glenda Martinez, owners of the Mt. View restaurant in Monte Vista; water bottles filled by the Alamosa County Marketing District’s Hydration Station; and a special “Support the Girls” table of items supporting the event sold by the hospital’s radiology department.
“Every year, I am so amazed at all the love and support this community has for Stephanie Miner and this event,” said SLV Health Foundation Director Kelly Gurule. “It is an honor for us to hold this event and to give the opportunity for the community to support the services that the Stephanie L. Miner Imaging Center provides.”
For more information on the SLV Health Foundation, go to www.sanluisvalleyhealth.org/foundation.