Miles for Matheny 2015

Participants in the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk last year.

The 18th annual Miles for Matheny, Matheny’s annual fundraiser and community event, will be held on Sunday, May 31, at Liberty Park in downtown Peapack. This year the event will include a new Fitness Walk in addition to the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk, five Cycling rides and a Kids Fun Run.

The signature event, of course, is the Wheelchair Walk, in which friends and families, along with Matheny staff, walk alongside more than 100 Matheny children and adults who “wheel” through the streets of downtown Peapack to the cheers of community members and other supporters.  The Cycling event offers a choice of 10-, 25-, 35- and 50-mile bike routes, plus the highly challenging “Hills of Attrition” endurance ride, all through the beautiful Somerset Hills countryside. The Kids Fun Run is open to children  ages 3–10, who are all winners—everyone receives a medal. The new one-mile Fitness Walk will precede the Wheelchair Walk, but all Fitness Walk participants are invited to join the wheelchair participants for a second mile around downtown Peapack. All participants and supporters will be able to indulge in The Friends of Matheny’s “Breakfast of Champions.”

Funds raised at Miles for Matheny will benefit programs and services that enhance the lives of the children and adults at Matheny and serve people with disabilities in the community. For more information, call (908) 234-0011, ext. 260, or email pcats@matheny.org. For sponsorship opportunities, call (908) 234-0011, ext. 315, or email jkriegman@matheny.org.

Peapack-Gladstone residents cheer the Wheelchair Walk participants as they roll past 23 Mendham Road.

Team Bo from Miles 2013.

A great way to raise money for Miles for Matheny is to get more people involved by starting a team. It could include members of your school, church, book club, running club—or it could be just friends and family. You can create a team registration page, train together, set team fundraising goals or even generate a friendly competition among team members to see who can raise the most money.

You can also create a personal or team webpage at www.milesformatheny.org to make your fundraising efforts easier. You can upload photos of you and your teammates, set fundraising goals and send emails to your friends and family, asking them to support you at Miles for Matheny.

Miles for Matheny is being held Sunday, June 1, at Liberty Park in downtown Peapack. Events include the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk, a 5K Road Race, five Cycling Routes, a Kids Fun Run and the “Breakfast of Champions,” provided by The Friends of Matheny. All funds raised will help support the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry, which provides medical, dental and therapy care to Matheny inpatients and people with disabilities in communities throughout New Jersey.

For more information about how to start a fundraising team and webpage, log onto www.milesformatheny.org. If you need help, email pcats@matheny.org or call (908) 234-0011, ext. 260.

The Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk returns to downtown Peapack this year.

You want to raise money to support Miles for Matheny, but you don’t know how. The first step is to log onto www.milesformatheny.org. Then register for the event you select. You can either join an existing team, create a new team or register as an individual.

After you register, you will have a home page on the Miles for Matheny website. This is a centralized location for you to view and edit your personal fundraising goal, track individual and team fundraising progress, view web traffic and email statistics.

If this sounds complicated, go to the milesformatheny.org homepage and look on the left for the Need help with your page? Click here for information message, and we will walk you through the process. If you’re still confused, call (908) 234-0011, ext. 260, or email pcats@matheny.org for additional help.

All funds raised at Miles for Matheny help support the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry, which provides medical, dental and therapy care to Matheny’s inpatients and people with disabilities in the community. So, whether you’re running, cycling, walking or just cheering, join us on Sunday, April 22, at Liberty Park in downtown Peapack, NJ.

Cyclists will have new routes this year.

The five cycling routes at the 15th annual Miles for Matheny will have a new look. After three years with the same routes, Lee Brush, a resident of Annandale and former president of the Bedminster Flyers cycling club, felt it was time for a change. The 12-mile route is now 10 miles, the 23-mile route is now 25 miles and the 32-mile ride is now 35 miles. The 50 miles and Hills of Attrition rides will remain the same.

The 10-mile distance is the “family friendly” route. In the past, it hadn’t been so friendly because there were some difficult hills and the route crossed a highway.

All cycling rides will use the Whitehouse Station branch of our cycling sponsor, Peapack-Gladstone Bank, as a rest stop, reducing our rest stop locations from four to one. This will make delivery and pickup of supplies easier and should be more interesting for the riders and volunteers at the stop.

Miles for Matheny will be held Sunday, April 22, at Liberty Park in downtown Peapack, NJ. The 50-mile and Hills of Attrition rides take off at 10 a.m.; 25 and 35-mile rides start at 10:45 a.m.; and the 10-mile ride leaves at 11:45 a.m.

Miles for Matheny also includes a Kids Fun Run at 11:30 a.m.; a 5K race at 12:15 p.m.; and the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk at 1 p.m. All funds raised help support the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry, which provides medical, dental and therapy care to Matheny’s inpatients and to children and adults with disabilities in the community.

For more information, log onto www.milesformatheny.org or call (908) 234-0011, ext. 260.

Are you looking for a country run where city life seems far away? If so, look no further than the Miles for Matheny 5K Run. Hundreds of athletes will join us on Sunday, April 22, for a day of running as well as biking, walking, food and fun.

Miles for Matheny is a fundraiser and community event that also includes several Cycling routes, a Kids Fun Run and our signature event, the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk. The 5K run starts at 12:15 p.m. at Liberty Park in downtown Peapack, NJ. The course is USATF-certified, traffic-free and multi-surface on a road and hard packed gravel. There will be mile clocks and a water stop. Results will be posted on www.compuscore.com.

Age groups are 5 years to 85+. Last year, 380 runners participated in the 5K. The winners were:

• Male: 17-year-old Matthew Goroff of Brookline, MA, brother of Matheny student Louise Goroff, with a time of 18:15.11

• Female: 28-year-old Jane Albright of Basking Ridge, NJ, with a time of 20:59.23.

Please join us for breakfast and our post-race lunch. When you finish the 5K, there will still be time to walk over to see the end of the Lu Huggins Wheelchair Walk and cheer for the Matheny students and patients as they cross the finish line.

All funds raised will help support the Matheny Center of Medicine and Dentistry, which provides medical, dental and therapy care to Matheny inpatients and people with disabilities in the community.

Above, the start of the 5K in 2011.