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Health & Fitness

Miles for Matheny: Banner Day for Mendham Road

Heather Santoro, a resident of Gladstone, looks forward every year to the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk at Miles for Matheny because the wheelchair participants and their walking partners go right past her home on Mendham Road. In fact, she spoke out at a Peapack-Gladstone Borough Council meeting in December 2011 in favor of moving the Matheny Medical and Educational Association's community event and fundraiser back to town from nearby Natirar park. "I've been waiting two years for the Miles for Matheny event to return to Peapack-Gladstone," she said. "If the event cannot be held in town, it will not be as special."

The Santoros usually have a party on the day of Miles, inviting friends and neighbors to their house to cheer the Matheny students and patients on as they pass by. But this year, Heather Santoro would like to go the extra mile, so to speak.  Her family is going to be making Miles for Matheny banners, and she is going to urge her neighbors on Mendham Road to do the same. Santoro plans to distribute a flyer in the neighborhood, and there may even be a contest to see who can make the most creative banner.

Santoro grew up in Peapack-Gladstone and moved back as an adult about 10 years ago. She visited Matheny recently with her two daughters, six-year-old Isabelle, a first grader at the Bedwell School in Bernardsville, and nine-year-old Sophia, a Bedwell third grader. Both plan to participate in the Kids Fun Run at Miles for Matheny, and Heather's husband Chris will be running in the 5K. The girls are also planning to take part in a special program at The Matheny School that invites them to read to some of the Matheny students. Other plans include a possible community softball game.

Matheny is a special hospital and educational facility in Peapack for children and adults with medically complex developmental disabilities. All funds raised at Miles for Matheny support the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry, where more than 800 of New Jersey's children, teens and adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities have access to the best medical, dental and therapy care possible.

Major sponsors for this year's Miles for Matheny include the Poses Family Foundation, the Golub Family, Partlow Insurance, Peapack-Gladstone Bank, Porzio Bromberg & Newman PC Attorneys at Law, BP Fueling Communities, Delta Dental of New Jersey, Inc., WCBS-TV and WCBS Newsradio 880. For more information or to register, log onto www.milesformatheny.org or call (908) 234-0011, ext. 260.


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