{"id":215758,"date":"2026-04-30T18:59:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T18:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/215758\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T18:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T18:59:07","slug":"20th-annual-big-hearts-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/215758\/","title":{"rendered":"20th Annual Big Hearts Walk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Sunday, May 17th, hundreds of community volunteers will participate in St. Mary\u2019s Healthcare System for Children\u2019s 20th annual Big Hearts Walk, a charity walk-a-thon to support New York\u2019s most medically fragile children. This year\u2019s event will honor Lynne Koufakis, a member of the New York State Developmental Disabilities Advisory Council and a passionate advocate for individuals with disabilities, and Eileen Alvarez, an experienced pediatric nurse at St. Mary\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Lynne Koufakis is a compassionate leader and advocate for children and individuals with complex medical, developmental, and special healthcare needs. Lynne\u2019s passion for her work is shaped by her lived experience as a mother of four, including two sons with autism. She has served in multiple leadership roles, including at Life\u2019s WORC, where she became the organization\u2019s first female Board Chair. She also serves on the New York State Developmental Disabilities Advisory Council.<\/p>\n<p>Eileen Alvarez is an experienced pediatric nurse at St. Mary\u2019s, where she serves as Nurse Educator, mentoring new staff and supporting clinical excellence. With more than 36 years of experience in pediatrics, she has devoted her career to supporting children and families during some of their most difficult moments.<\/p>\n<p>The 20th Annual Big Hearts Walk for St. Mary\u2019s Kids will take place at Crocheron Park in Bayside on Sunday, May 17th at 10:00 a.m. A variety of family-friendly activities will follow the walk, including music, carnival games, arts and crafts, and more.<\/p>\n<p>Adults can register on-site for $25 and children for $5. On-site registration opens at 9 a.m. Participants can also register online beforehand at www.stmaryskids.org\/walk2026<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-198041\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1000019560-136x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"136\" height=\"300\"  \/> <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-198045\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Lynne-and-Michael-Photo-Final-224x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"224\" height=\"300\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Lynne and Michael Koufakis.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Eileen Alvarez.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Sunday, May 17th, hundreds of community volunteers will participate in St. Mary\u2019s Healthcare System for Children\u2019s 20th&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-215758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}