Last year, participants gathered together to hear a speaker prior to starting their walk

This Sunday, Oct. 9, The Maina Foundation is hosting a three-mile-walk in Rocky Neck State Park to raise funds for its critical work increasing breast cancer awareness and promoting early detection to women in need of financial assistance. By working at a grass roots level, the foundation devotes the majority of the funds raised to hospitals and clinics for furthering the cause of early detection.

The incidence of breast cancer is rising globally, especially in developing countries such as India where 1 in 28 women develop the disease.  Unfortunately, because of the social taboo associated with breast cancer, almost 80 percent of patients reach an advanced stage before medical care is obtained.

The Maina Foundation hosts breast cancer awareness classes in India.

By supporting awareness programs and providing mammogram units, The Maina Foundation wants to bring breast cancer discussion to the forefront and encourage women to seek preventative care.  Since its inception in 2008, Maina has donated mammogram units, set up awareness programs and helped with patient care.

Onsite registration for the walk begins at 9 a.m. and the walk begins at 10 a.m.

Refreshments will be provided after the walk.

The Maina Foundation is a non-profit organization with an office in Old Lyme.  For more information, visit The Maina Foundation’s website at mainafoundation.org.

Directions to the walk are as follows: 

Exit 72 off I-95: Follow the turnpike connector south to Route 156.  Turn left and take Route 156 east for 1/4 mile to the park. The park street address is 244 West Main Street (Route 156).

After entering the park, go towards the West side towards the Administrative building.   Registration desk will be located near the building.  

A distinguished gathering of musicians and speakers will present the inaugural Witness For Peace concert, which has been re-scheduled to Sunday, June 12, from 12 to 3 p.m. . The concert will take place at New London’s Hempstead Houses, at 11 Hempstead Street, in conjunction with the annual Juneteenth Day Celebration held there.

The concert is being sponsored by St. Francis House and local members of Veterans For Peace, in support of the peace vigil which has been lead by Cal Robertson in New London for more than three decades. This event will honor the memory of the fallen with a pledge to work for a day when the specter of war will no longer stalk the living days of humankind. Also recognized will be the tragic reality of slavery, which often results from unsettled war in this, the 21st century.

The concert will be headlined Connecticut State Troubadour Lara Herscovitch and Hugh Birdsall, with more joining in. Speakers will include representatives of Veterans For Peace and the War Resisters League. Members of Veterans For Peace will be on hand with information about their work, including plans to establish a New London Division of Veterans For Peace.

The New London Peace Vigil is held five days a week, Tuesday through Saturday, from 9:30 to 11 a.m., at the corner of Huntington and Broad Street. A vigil is also held on Thursday afternoons at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial, led by Bob and Ronna Stuller. All are welcome and encouraged to join in.

Juneteenth is the annual celebration of the end of slavery in the State of Texas on June 13, 1865. The date also celebrates the end of slavery across America. The Hempstead Houses will host events, along with the Greater New London NAACP, on Saturday, June 11; there will also be a storytelling festival at 3 p.m. on Sunday, June 12.

The concert is free to the public, and all are invited to enjoy the music while learning more about the peace vigil and other ongoing work for the cause of peace.

For further information, contact Mike Hatt at 860-574-6235 or veteransforpeacese@gmail.com or visit the Facebook page @ Witness For Peace New London