Six months after moving to Rye with her husband, Adrian, and their twin 2-year-olds in 2016, April Deen was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. When she died on Dec. 6, 2017, Adrian willed himself to go for runs to help preserve his mental and physical well-being.
Medical professionals were there to provide treatments for every step of April’s journey. Soul Ryeders, the Rye-based nonprofit, was there for everything else, supporting not just April, but also Adrian and their twins, Alton and Elan.
That’s why Adrian Deen was one of the more than 2,000 runners who laced up their running shoes on Sunday, May 18, to take part in the organization’s half-marathon, an event Deen helped conceive and organize.
“While April was going through treatment, the biggest thing, number one, was just having people to talk to,” Deen said. Rye’s “Sandy Samberg, Soul Ryeders’ founder, was at our house all the time. They’d go for walks and talk, do yoga, salon days, and things like that. Cancer’s such a heavy thing. There’s all the medical research and steps to fight it, but the social aspects of it aren’t always there. To quote my wife, ‘Soul Ryeders is always there with a helping hand.’”
Deen, the founder and CEO of Funding Innovation Network, now serves on Soul Ryeders’ grant committee and the Giving Circle Advisory Board. In 2020, he planned to run a half-marathon in Brooklyn to raise money for Soul Ryeders, but that race, like so many other events then, was canceled because of the Covid-19 pandemic. He had the training, the shoes and, most importantly, the motivation to run for a cause. So, he ran his own half-marathon to raise money.
Trotting up and down the streets, side roads, and trails of Rye, he ran 13.1 miles, generating financial support and cheers from people lining the roads. The next year, he ran the route again, this time enticing a few friends to join him and raising even more money.
Meanwhile, Heidi Kitlas, who took over as Soul Ryeders’ executive director in April 2021, was looking for ways to build awareness and raise money for the organization.
“A lot of people were really excited about me doing this,” Deen told Kitlas of his impromptu runs. “Maybe we should make it bigger.”
The annual run has since evolved into one of Soul Ryeders’ largest fundraisers.
The 13.1-mile course follows almost the exact path Deen took when he ran it in 2020. The third-annual event began as it has every year, with Deen’s now 10-year-old son and daughter ringing a starting bell on stage alongside Kitlas.
Considering Soul Ryeders’ origins, it’s fitting that a run has become its signature event.
“Our beginnings were through a walk,” Kitlas said. Samberg and her family participated annually in the now-defunct Avon 39.3-mile Walk to End Breast Cancer in New York City and raised money and rallied friends in what became the roots of Soul Ryeders.
For years, Kitlas said Soul Ryeders considered hosting a run of its own.
“It always felt out of reach,” she said. “Then Covid hit, and people were batting around ideas for Covid-safe events outside, and doing a walk or a race came back into the conversation in a more serious way.”
The first half-marathon, in 2023, attracted 1,400 participants, a number that has grown each year. The race shines a brief annual spotlight on Soul Ryeders, which quietly provides services 365 days a year.
According to Soul Ryeders’ 2024-25 annual report, 200 people attended yoga, meditation, and group workshops in the past year. The group’s wig exchange provided more than 130 wigs to clients and made 60 wig donations internationally and 492 elsewhere in the U.S. More than 1,000 volunteers helped, delivering 55 soul-lifting kits and 243 care packages containing practical, essential items and uplifting messages.
The race itself is exciting, Kitlas said, “but it’s that piece where we’ve seen people find healing while doing the event with friends and family that really resonates the most. Then, there’s purpose to what they’re doing out there that day and what we’re doing every day of the year.”
Rye resident Chris Timchak has run the Soul Ryeders race every year. This year, his wife Amanda had an unexpected reason to join him. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2024, had surgery in December, radiation in February, and now is in remission. Through Soul Ryeders, she joined a group text of young cancer survivors who supported each other and traded information about local resources.
“Cancer is super scary,” she said. “I never thought I’d be diagnosed with cancer, so having a support network I could reach out to immediately and help with the learning curve was super helpful. It’s really different than being part of a nationwide support group. You can get info on local doctors and treatment plans. Soul Ryeders is a really awesome group.”
Along with fellow Rye breast cancer survivors Gwendolyn Boyce, Meghan DiPerna, Emily Powers, and Sarah Simandl, Timchak started a team for the 2025 run aptly named “Check Your Boobs,” to promote breast cancer awareness and annual screenings. The 30-person team included the Timchaks and their four children.
“I’m usually at the finish line with a sign,” Timchak said. “It takes on a different meaning when you’re a recipient of Soul Ryeders’ support. They drop off care packages. Every couple of months, we get a nice pick-me-up basket from them.”
The organization has added new elements to the race, like a survivor’s tent at the finish line and the option to participate virtually. Thanks to the virtual option, one Rye resident who was unable to run in person, still found a way to participate for the first time this year.
Sue Padgett is now in her third bout with cancer, and because she has a compromised immune system, she joined the race virtually with her husband, Joe, a survivor of prostate cancer. She has had uterine cancer, breast cancer, and now, multiple myeloma, a blood cancer of the bone marrow and plasma cells.
Her bones are porous because of the myeloma, and that led to a spinal fracture that limits her physical activity. And yet, the couple, in their mid-70s, walked several miles a week, with a goal of surpassing 13.1 miles total for the Soul Ryeders virtual event.
“It gets us out,” said Padgett, who raised two children in a house a little more than a mile from Playland, where the race begins and ends. “If you’re doing the walk, even if it’s virtually, and you’re not feeling well or the weather’s bad, it gives you that little kick to get out there and do it anyway.”
Of the race, she said, “It’s a big, exciting day. We went over last year. It was so festive. I said, ‘I want to be a part of it next time.’ I got up at 7 a.m. last year and saw people running by the corner where we live…the virtual race is a way we can participate.”
Padgett, despite suffering a malady that has no cure and requires lifelong treatment, is cheery and optimistic.
“When we got to Rye, I went, ‘Oh my God, this place is beautiful,’” she said. “When we walk, we look at each other at least once a week and say, ‘We are so lucky to be here and walk here in this beautiful place anytime we want or need to.’”
She said she has participated in “almost everything Soul Ryeders offers,” frequently joining webinars, meditation sessions, and art workshops over Zoom. Before her spine was compromised, she attended yoga three times a week, and got to know April Deen through Soul Ryeders’ Yoga4Cancer events.
“I ran into her a few times before she passed away,” Padgett said. “Adrian’s done a significant amount for Soul Ryeders and the run/walk. It’s turned into an amazing thing.”
Whether it’s runners who complete a half-marathon, the 5K, or virtual walkers who go the distance over the course of several months, the thousands of race participants offer a glimpse of the impact the organization has on cancer patients, survivors, and their families.
“Last year during the run, people who were running around me were saying how thrilled they are we have an event like this here,” Deen said. “People who were running in memory of family and friends lost to cancer.
“They didn’t know who I was. They were just sharing stories. I was personally affected, and Soul Ryeders was there for me and my family. It’s pretty remarkable to hear people come out and do it for their own reason, because Soul Ryeders has been there for them and so many other families as well.”
