WMCHealth Runners to Compete in New York City Marathon Sunday

VALHALLA, N.Y. (October 30, 2019) – Westchester Medical Center held a carb loading send-off party for WMCHealth’s team of runners who are set to compete in Sunday’s TCS New York City Marathon.

On Wednesday, some of the marathon runners gathered in the hospital’s cafeteria where pasta and salad lunches were being served as a fundraiser for the team. A dedicated group of 11 WMCHealth workforce members will compete November 3 to raise money for 10 hospitals across the Hudson Valley. Six are running a marathon for the first time.

Christopher Castro-Gonzalez, PrEP Specialist at Westchester Medical Center, who attended the carb-loading lunch said that he had never run in a race before he started training for the event. “I had run a few hundred yards. That’s about it,’’ he said, loading up his plate with pasta and salad. Castro-Gonzalez said he was inspired by a co-worker who had run the race the year before.

This is the fourth year that WMCHealth has fielded a team of runners. Forty-three WMCHealth staff have run more than 1,000 miles and raised more than $175,000 during that time.

Other members of this year’s team are: Fabio Danisi, MD at MidHudson Regional Hospital; Angela Flesland, RN at Westchester Medical Center; Brittany Foote, RN at Westchester Medical Center; Brian Geiger, MSPT at Westchester Medical Center; Lisa Hirsch, MD at Good Samaritan Hospital; Kristin Jedziniak, RN at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital; Michael Kim, MD at Westchester Medical Center; Luis Tatem, MD at Westchester Medical Center; Elizabeth Tilley, PhD at Westchester Medical Center; and Yurij Tsuvanyk, surgical technician at Mary’s Avenue Campus of Health Alliance Hospital.

Donations collected for each runner’s efforts will support essential programs and services in the local and regional hospitals the runners represent. Tax deductible contributions can be made by visiting wmchealth.org/marathon.

About Westchester Medical Center Health Network

The Westchester Medical Center Health Network (WMCHealth) is a 1,700-bed healthcare system headquartered in Valhalla, New York, with 10 hospitals on eight campuses spanning

6,200 square miles of the Hudson Valley. WMCHealth employs more than 12,000 people and has nearly 3,000 attending physicians. From Level 1, Level 2 and Pediatric Trauma Centers,

the region’s only acute care children’s hospital, an academic medical center, several community hospitals, dozens of specialized institutes and centers, skilled nursing, assisted living facilities, homecare services and one of the largest mental health systems in New York State, today WMCHealth is the pre-eminent provider of integrated healthcare in the Hudson Valley. For more information about WMCHealth, visit WMCHealth.org.