Eighth Annual NYU-Led Oral Cancer Awareness Walk Raises More than $50,000 to Help Stamp Out Oral Cancer

4/25/2013

On Sunday, April 21, 2013, oral cancer survivors and their families joined dental students from the NYU chapter of the Student National Dental Association (SNDA), residents, dental hygiene students, nursing students, faculty, and staff from the NYU Colleges of Dentistry and Nursing for the eighth annual NYC Oral Cancer Awareness Walk, which set out from the Kissena Park Velodrome in Queens for a four-mile walk, ending at Citi Field, home of the Mets.

The event attracted 600-plus walkers and raised over $50,000 --
the highest total to date – for oral cancer awareness, prevention, and treatment. In addition to NYU Dentistry and NYUCN, sponsors included Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center, the NYU Oral Cancer Center, Columbia University College of Dental Medicine, the Oral Cancer Foundation, New York Hospital in Queens, the Oral Cancer Consortium, the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the UMDNJ New Jersey Dental School, and Boulevard Dental Center. Free oral cancer screenings were available throughout the event.

A highlight of the event was remarks by U.S. Representative Grace Meng (D-Queens), whose husband is Dr. Wayne Kye, ’02, clinical assistant professor of periodontology and implant dentistry.

As he has done since 2006, Dr. Ross Kerr, clinical professor of oral and maxillofacial pathology, radiology and medicine, provided invaluable strategic advice, encouragement, and support to the extraordinary student volunteers who made the walk such a great success.