April 30 Karen’s Walk, 5K Benefits URMC Heart Failure Research

Walking and running are good for your heart. On Saturday, April 30, participating in Karen’s Walk and 5k Run will be good for local heart failure research. The 11 a.m. event includes a 5K run or walk, and a 1.5K fun walk at Rochester Institute of Technology’s Nathaniel Rochester Hall Field.

The event is held in memory of Karen Decker, who died of a form of heart failure in 2002. It is sponsored by Phi Sigma Pi National Honor Fraternity at RIT to raise awareness of postpartum cardiomyopathy, a rare disease of the heart muscle that develops in some women just after childbirth. There is no known cause.

A friend of a Phi Sigma Pi member, Karen died suddenly March 20, 2002, just weeks after delivering her daughter, Hannah Grace. Fraternity members organized the benefit nine years ago as the Walk for Hannah, to create a college scholarship fund for her.  The event has evolved into a memorial fundraiser for research of the disease that took Karen’s life. The fraternity has raised more than $21,000 for the Karen Decker Research for Cardiomyopathy Fund at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Registration and pledge forms are available at https://sites.google.com/a/g.rit.edu/karen-s-walk-2011/registr. Registration is $22 or $12 for students.