World Record in Basking Ridge July 27th

BERNARDS TWP. – During her four years at Ridge High School, Nastassja Kuznetsova helped
raised thousands of dollars for lung cancer research. 2/4
For five years, Kuznetsova, the president and founder of the Legwork For Lungs club,
organized a 5K run and one-mile walk benefit for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
The event was held at Mountain Park in Basking Ridge.
As of June 20 a Ridge High graduate, she is now planning a big encore event to continue the
effort.
Starting at noon on Saturday, July 27, Kuznetsova and her friends will be hosting Leap for
Lungs, a hopscotch “hop-a-thon’’ on a course that snakes around the grounds of Ridge High
and the Cedar Hill Elementary School.
The event has been in the planning stages for several months. It was finally approved by the
school district for after the conclusion of the school year.
Leap For Lungs organizers are hoping to break a Guinness World Record for the longest
hopscotch course ever by selling “virtual hopscotch squares’’ for $5 each on its website,
www.leapforlungs.org.
Seeking a site to create a four-mile course took some time, as the group spent 10 months of
“location scouting’’ before finally gaining approval. The club plans to work on the course
during the week of July 22.
“I wanted to do something that could make a big difference,’’ Kuznetsova said. “I see this as a
grand finale.’’
Hopscotch is an old children’s playground game that was popular years ago. It is played on a
course with a number of patterned squares and triangles outlined on pavement in chalk.
Players advance by hopping forward through the course.
The idea for the event was implanted in Kuznetsova’s mind years ago when she played
hopscotch as a child at an after-school camp.
“They gave us a bunch of chalk and we started some drawings,’’ she recalled. “It kind of
stuck in my mind.’’
“When I was looking around for a cool fund-raiser to do, I knew I wanted to do something
with hopscotch,’’ she said.
An avid runner, Kuznetsova began Legwork For Lungs at age 13 in 2014 after a family friend
was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer.
She researched the disease and at one point actually interviewed the oncologist at
Memorial Sloan Kettering whose research would be funded to learn specifically how the
money would be used. 3/4
Legwork for Lungs has raised over $30,000 through its 5K runs and other events such as
bake sales. During the years the run has been held, more than 1,000 residents have
participated.
The club also also seeks to engage the community and teach residents about lung cancer.
“I thought a lot about why lung cancer doesn’t get a lot of funding,’’ Kuznetsova said.
According to literature posted on the club’s website, lung cancer accounts for a quarter of all
cancer deaths yet receives the least funding per death due to the stigma of smoking.
Many relate lung cancer to cigarettes, even though most lung cancer victims never smoked
or quit years ago.
“There’s an image problem,’’ Kuznetsova said, saying the upcoming hop-a-thon is an “image
solution.’’
“I want to do something that really grabs people’s attention.’’
Fund-raising can be difficult, she noted, as so many organizations run events for a wide
variety of causes.
“There’s so much advertising out there for benefits. Sometimes you feel like you can’t make
a difference,’’ she said, “It feels like it’s pointless. But doing this, I was able to see what
individuals can do. I had people with lung cancer who ran in our event.
“It’s worth it in the end,’’ she added.”I feel like I’m doing something. It’s better than sitting on
your couch and yelling at your TV about all the things that are wrong in the world.’’
For more information on the club and its fund-raising efforts, visit
http://www.legworkforlungs.org