Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Desert, The Galen, and the surrounding Faye Sarkowsky Sculpture Garden concluded the year with the annual Galen New Year’s Resolution 5K. The event encouraged participants and attendees to welcome 2015 with healthy New Year’s resolutions!
Nearly 700 museum supporters, runners, walkers from toddlers to seniors, and even family pets, signed up to join title sponsor Helene Galen to raise money for the Palm Desert museum education programs. The race participants began gathering in the Faye Sarkowsky Sculpture Garden shortly after 6 a.m. December 27, and all were eager to hit the track that looped through the foothills behind the museum.
The museum is proud to have sponsored 14 students from Indio’s Hoover Elementary School “Run 4 Fun” program and their coach/instructor, Patricia Schoenfield, which enabled the first- through fifth-graders to participate in the race.
Another racer was Peggy Abundiz, known as “The Running Bride,” who wore 50-pounds of full turn-out firefighter gear to highlight the plight of firefighters battling job-related cancers.
The runners, who came from as far away as Canada and the Pacific Northwest, all received medals for their participation in the race. Many participated with their four-legged partners, including a pair of tiny Yorkies that ran the entire 5k-course!
Galen and her co-sponsors Harold Matzner and Donna MacMillan have been major supporters of the Palm Springs museum’s Palm Desert campus since its inception.
Museum Managing Director Arlene Amick, worked with a committee that included Ken Rashid, Stephanie Greene, Linda Blank, Clayton Hudson, Olivia Villareal, Karen Prinzmetal, Scott Griffith, Deborah Schwartz, MarJon Hudson, Thomas Wootan, Shawn Brophy, Tizoc DeAtzlan, Bill Ransom, Betsy Hellie, Greg Plunkett from COD, Scott Griffith and Deborah Schwartz of the City of Palm Desert, to make sure that the second running of the Galen 5K went off without a hitch on that chilly December morning.
Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Desert
72-567 Highway 111, Palm Desert, CA 92260
760-346-5600
www.psmuseum.org/palm-desert
Photography by Gregg Felsen
