Middletown 5K Tutu Trot To Fight Pediatric Cancer Is June 11

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — Now in its eighth year, the Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer "Tutu Trot" 5K Run/Walk is back and will be held on Sunday, June 11.

The 5K run/walk will be held at Middletown High School South.

The run raises money for pediatric brain tumor research. And runners/walkers are encouraged to wear a tutu while they do it.

This year's run has a goal of raising $100,000 for the Children's Brain Tumor Network, based at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

While people can register up until the day of the event, if you want a t-shirt in your guaranteed size, you need to register by this Friday, May 12. To sign up for the Tutu Trot, or to donate toward the $100,000 fundraising goal, please visit RunSignup.com/ILTutuTrot

In addition to the 5K Run/Walk that is open to all ages, the event also includes a series of short Kids’ Fun Runs to be held on the track after the 5K is complete.

Here is how the Tutu Trot began:

Two parents of children with cancer, both strangers to each other, Jim McCaffrey in Trumbull, Connecticut and Sue Funck of Tinton Falls, started separate 5K races in their hometowns to raise awareness and money.

Jim McCaffrey held the first Tutu Trot in Trumbull, CT, where his daughter Mia, a kindergartener, was battling rhabdomyosarcoma.

Separately, Sue Funck began the Hustle4Hannah 5K in Tinton Falls to honor the memory of her 14-year-old daughter Hannah after her fight with brain cancer.

Through the connected network of childhood cancer families, they each met Andrea Verdone Gorsegner, a Middletown mother and founder of Infinite Love for Kids Fighting Cancer. Gorsegner's daughter Natalie survived childhood leukemia in 2014.

The three combined efforts to create the Infinite Love Tutu Trot as a way to honor Mia and Hannah by raising funds for the Children’s Brain Tumor Network at CHOP. Another 5K run/walk will also be held this June simultaneously at Trumbull High School in Trumbull, CT.

Hannah, 14, had previously died from cancer, and sadly, Mia McCaffrey, the Connecticut six-year-old, died, as well.

"This allows us to continue Mia’s story," said Mia's father, Jim McCaffrey. "It’s pretty amazing to see how the community has allowed her spirit to continue to live on, in all the people we get to see come together and celebrate her life.”

For Tinton Falls mother Sue Funck, the Tutu Trot helps her honor a specific promise she made her daughter.

Before her death, Hannah asked her mother Sue for two things: To never be forgotten and to continue to fight for a cure.

"We know first-hand what cancer can do to a child. We lived it, and still live every day with what it took from us,” said Sue. “I can think of no better way to honor Hannah than to give other kids like her a better chance of surviving."