Our Story

In the year 2000, a dear friend of mine was battling breast cancer, and like anyone else watching a loved one struggle, I wanted to do something tangible to help. I learned about the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer (which at the time was a 60 mile, 3 day walk from Bear Mountain to NYC) and signed up right away. I had a heart condition at the time and unfortunately didn’t get clearance from my cardiologist. I still wanted to be a part of the experience, so I went to the finish line with my friend who was battling breast cancer and was moved to tears during the closing ceremony. I remember exactly where I was standing that day in Central Park when I made a promise to myself that someday I would do the walk…

Six years later, very sadly my friend lost her battle with cancer and the following month another friend of mine was diagnosed with advanced stage breast cancer. I had had open heart surgery 9 months prior to this and as opposed to getting short of breath while walking up the stairs in my house, I was feeling much healthier. All of the stars seemed to align and I knew that it was time to fulfill the promise that I had made to myself to do the walk (which had since changed to a 39 mile 2 day walk). I registered as an individual and was confident that I would meet inspiring and interesting people along the way.

After sending out my fundraising letter, two friends of mine, Laura DeVita and Maiju Savage, expressed interest in walking as well. I welcomed the company and the three of us trained and walked together that first year. As we were walking, I said to Laura and Maiju “What do you think about trying to start a team from Rye next year? I’m sure that there are a lot of women in our community who would really get a lot out of this experience. I can give it a try and see what happens.” And so ‘Sole Ryeders’ began (it’s ‘sole’ as in the sole of your foot, ‘Ryeders’ as in the name of our town, and our tag line is ‘Every Step Counts’). The first year there were 35 of us and we raised $130,000. Lynn was among this group, walking in memory of someone very dear to her who had fought hard yet lost her battle with breast cancer.

During the course of each walk season, we get to know our teammates through our training walks, fundraisers, and various team events. Our group is very diverse. We range in age from 20’s – 60’s, come from all different races and religions, have varying parenting status’, some work full-time or part-time while others are full-time moms. We have lawyers, accountants, marketing experts, doctors, businesswomen, nurses, teachers, and many other professionals among us. In fact, if you have any questions about almost anything, there’s bound to be someone on our team who can give you excellent professional advice! It’s amazing to watch paths cross that wouldn’t otherwise intersect. We have met and become friendly with some of the most remarkable people through Sole Ryeders. We come from all walks of life and yet we share at least two important things in common—we’re dedicated to finding a way to eradicate breast cancer and we’re committed to improving the lives of those living with cancer in our local community.

Recognizing that there are critical unmet cancer-related needs in our community, we established our own charitable entity in an effort to fund local causes in addition to the Avon Foundation. We now award grants to local cancer-related non-profits.  We also fund our new initiative, The Wig Exchange, which we developed to help women in need of wigs during cancer treatment and as a way to enable survivors to pay it forward by recycling their gently used wigs.  In addition to the grants and The Wig Exchange, we also promote cancer awareness & prevention and we provide resources and emotional support for individuals and families affected by cancer.

With broadened interest in Sole Ryeders’ various efforts, we renamed ourselves ‘Sole Ryeders & Friends’ to represent the non-Rye walkers on our team who joined through friends or family from Rye. Since inception in 2007, we’ve had over 200 Sole Ryeders & Friends and together we’ve raised over $1,000,000! Our success, in large part, is due to the generous support that we receive from our local community. People make personal donations, attend our fundraisers, purchase goods at our bake and book sales, and over 80 local businesses have generously offered us financial support, products, services, and/or in-kind donations.

Our relationships with the local non-profit organizations that we support are instrumental as we help those in our community who are affected by cancer. Whether it’s helping a newly diagnosed person get doctors’ appointments, navigate the health care system, receive professional emotional support, access certain resources, speak with one of the survivors on our team, or having our volunteers make meals or provide transportation, we are always there to lend a hand and an ear during these challenging situations.

In addition to helping our community, we also use Sole Ryeders as an opportunity to involve our children. Together we are the mothers of 6 sons and we strive to show them how each person can make a difference. Our boys offer ideas, lend a hand, cheer us on, and proudly speak about Sole Ryeders & Friends. Each year we organize a youth community service event where our youth team participates in a fun activity while raising money for children with cancer.

We continue to see families in our community struggling with cancer. While detection and treatments have improved over the years, the statistics unfortunately haven’t changed significantly. For example, every 3 minutes a life in our country is forever altered by a diagnosis of breast cancer and every 12 minutes someone loses their battle with this disease. That means that while you’re reading this page of our web site, at least one woman (depending on how fast you read!) will be diagnosed with breast cancer. It’s time for the statistics to change. One thing is crystal clear—we have to work hard today in order to make tomorrow better.

We can all make a difference now. If walking isn’t your thing or the time isn’t right for you commit to the training & fundraising required to participate in the walk, there are lots of other ways that you can become involved. We have several non-walkers who not only help our team efforts, but gain a sense of fulfillment through the projects that they work on and it’s an opportunity for them to meet new and interesting people through their experiences.

Over the past few years, a personal mission has become so much more than that. Sole Ryeders & Friends has become a community-builder. It has fostered many new friendships.  Unique partnerships have formed between Sole Ryeders and our sponsors and between Sole Ryeders and the local non-profits that we support.

Although we may lead the effort, it is the team each year who helps put our plans into motion and make things happen. We are a group of passionate, determined individuals who have come together to help make our community a better place.

Unfortunately we cannot bring our loved ones back, but there are a lot of things that we can do now…things that we can do together…to honor them…to memorialize them…and to make them proud of our accomplishments.

Thanks for taking the time to learn more about Sole Ryeders. If you’re interested in becoming involved, please email us at soleryeders@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Sandy Samberg & Lynn Halpern