The Levitt Pavilion was packed yesterday — with push-up people.
The view from the Levitt Pavilion stage.
Hundreds of men, women and kids — from super-jacked to usually sedentary — did as many push-ups as they could in an hour.
First Selectman Jim Marpe banged out his. So did Chief of Police Foti Koskinas. And Paul Newman’s grandson.
Chief of Police Foti Koskinas and Push Against Cancer founder Andy Berman.
Which was fitting, because all the money raised goes to the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp, the fantastic getaway for boys and girls with cancer and other serious diseases. It was founded, of course, by Westport’s own Paul Newman.
The 9th annual Push Against Cancer raised well over $120,000 — a record. That makes nearly $500,000 since the event began.
Congrats to founder and mastermind Andy Berman. To the many police and firefighters who helped make it happen.
And, of course, to everyone who participated — and feels very, very sore today.
(Hat tip: photographers Sabine Foreman, Andrew Kindt, Adam Vengrow)
This was the best community day ever. Only Andy Berman can get all the gyms, the police, the firemen, town government, local businesses, military, and people from all over the area to come and give back to children suffering life threatening diseases. Hole in the Wall Gang, started right here in Westport by Paul Newman, is an amazing organization. All year round they either have kids to the camp or bring camp to hospital beds, all with trained doctors and nurses on staff so kids can do things like regular healthy kids do. It was Andy Berman’s 9th annual, and every year he has made it better than the previous one!!!! Thanks for what you do Andy Berman!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks Dan for keeping us informed!
Congratulations to the Push Against Cancer for an exciting and successful event. As a cancer survivor who is cancer free, I know how important it is to have such support. I have seen this through writing workshops I have done for cancer survivors and patients undergoing treatment and they have a dramatic impact. I just published my next book: EVERY DAY IS A GIFT: Surviving Cancer and Making Peace with the Past—a Memoir of Love, Duty, and Friendship, Laughter, Tears, and Closure. It is available now on Amazon.
“Every Day is a Gift” are the words my father lived by after he died the first time. Yes, the first time. But there is so much more to this short phrase. Please Join me on a journey from being diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2012 at the age of 65, 30 years after my father died (the second time) when prostate cancer finally took him, to assessing the future, and determining how I made it through events as a teenager that would normally weaken the heart and crush the spirit. I didn’t do it alone.
Unlike my father, I am cancer free, physically fit and in excellent health. From the intense uncertainty of just hearing the word “cancer”, to attempting to understand how to deal with the disease, the reader joins me in confronting the past and embracing life outside our bodies from multiple points of view. Together, we examine the love and support necessary to survive that form our strongest bonds. We face the emotional confrontations we can’t avoid or make sense of, and we look deep into spiritual connections that reside within us, but often remain unacknowledged.
At times intensely dramatic and satirically funny, the book is matter of fact, yet passionate, providing time to pause for reflection. From first page to last, there is no separation between writer and reader as we arrive at the conclusion that governed my father’s days: Every day is a gift.
It was a fabulous event for a great cause! Team JOY loved being a part of it!