‘Beautifully Reckless’ runs for cancer

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Between 60 and 70 community members braved the cold and the rain on May 19 to run more than three miles around Arthur J. Hendrickson Park to raise money for scholarships and gift card packages for cancer patients.

“It went nicely, considering that it rained,” said Diane Heldenfelder, the vice-president of the Tracy Heldenfelder Memorial Fund. “We were happy with the number we got.”

The Tracy Heldenfelder Memorial Fund, known as Beautifully Reckless, is a family-run organization that seeks to raise money for scholarships for Central High School students, as well as money for cancer patients to purchase wigs. To raise the money, the memorial fund works with Central High School’s SCORE club to host the 5K. This year, Diane estimated that they raised about $2,000.

Tracy Heldenfelder was a Valley Streamer who went to Wheeler Avenue School, Memorial Junior High School and then Valley Stream Central High School. At Central, she played soccer, volleyball and lacrosse and wore the number 13 on all of her jerseys. After she graduated Central, she attended Stetson University in Florida, where she graduated in 2009. Only four months later she was diagnosed with head and neck cancer. She died on May 24, 2012.

Afterwards, her parents, Gary and Diane, formed the Beautifully Reckless Tracy Heldenfelder Memorial Fund. Its mission is to carry on Tracy’s legacy by providing scholarship opportunities, facilitating opportunities for young adults with cancer and by acknowledging young people who continue to have a positive attitude in the face of adversity. It raises money for scholarships for Central High School students, participants at St. Nicholas of Myra NYC, eighth-graders from MS-337 that works hard in the classroom and has a positive attitude, and raises money for wigs for people with cancer.

For more information about the fund, visit beautifullyreckless.org.