Published in the Ocean Star on 08/8/08

BY Alena Competello

Breast cancer walk draws hundreds

LAVALLETTE — Nearly 900 walkers joined in the annual “Working Together To Lick This Disease” breast cancer walk, here, on Sunday, helping the event hit a milestone.
Thanks to the 898 participants in this year’s event, the fund-raiser has now raised more than $100,000 throughout its five-year history.

Robert Agliata, owner of The Music Man Singing Ice Cream Shoppe and chairman of the Tone Foundation, one of the nonprofit groups sponsoring the event, said that this year’s walk was the most successful yet.

Among the walkers who participated last weekend was Mr. Agliata’s mother, Antoinette, known as “Ton” by her friends and family, who is a 13-year breast cancer survivor and the namesake of the Tone Foundation.

The name for the foundation was the result of a “play on words” using his mother’s name and the musical background of The Music Man, explained Mr. Agliata.

“We raised over $25,000,” he said of this year’s event.
Mr. Agliata said that the day was “absolutely” a success. He added that the all of the Music Man staff members donated their time to the walk.

Walk sponsors included, but were not limited to, The Music Man; The Lavallette Municipal Alliance; The Lavallette Heritage Committee; Community Medical Center, which offered free blood pressure screenings; the Lakewood BlueClaws, which donated the bottled water given to registrants; Victory Stables in Colts Neck; Sessa Designs; and Merrill Lynch, Mr. Agliata said.
“This year was more like a movement than an event,” he commented.

Marie Cella, a resident of Lavallette, has been involved with the walk since its inception five years ago. Not only is Ms. Cella a member of the committee that helps organize the event each year, she is also an eight-year breast cancer survivor.
The walk was “absolutely fabulous,” said Ms. Cella, “and the weather was spectacular.”

Ms. Cella was appreciative of the walk’s great success.
“The community was really behind us,” she said. “We want to thank everybody in the community.”

Many people registered the day of the event, Ms. Cella noted.
Ms. Cella echoed Mr. Agliata’s estimation that the walk raised nearly $25,000 this year, “And 100 percent of the profits from the walk go directly to the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer,” she reported.

Roseangela Zaccaria, a member of the Municipal Alliance —which has “embraced the cause” according to Mr. Agliata — has been a member of the walk committee since the event’s inception.

“It was great to see the community come together for a common cause,” she said.

Ms. Zaccaria also noted that there was a wealth of registrants the morning of the walk.

“We ran out of T-shirts and bandannas [which given to each registrant] but the people didn’t care,” she asserted. “They wanted to donate money and walk.”

Ms. Zaccaria also addressed the particular appeal of Sunday’s walk.

“It’s not that gruesome of a walk, at only 2 miles, and everyone’s treat is having ice cream for breakfast,” Ms. Zaccaria said, referring to the tradition that at the walk’s conclusion everyone is invited to enjoy free ice cream at The Music Man.

Ms. Zaccaria also stressed that the walk was part of a “great cause.”

“Everybody knows somebody who has gone through it [cancer] or is going through it. So many people had their own reason to do it,” she said.

Joann Pierre, of Clark, was participating in her first Tone Foundation Walk on Sunday.

Mrs. Pierre heard about the walk, she said, because she was staying in Lavallette for the summer with her sister-in-law.
Mrs. Pierre is a breast cancer survivor and walked with her husband, Daniel, and their children.

Kathy DiLeo-Olivetti said that this year’s walk was her fourth.
“I am walking for my sister,” she said, adding that her sister is a breast cancer survivor.