One-Time Walk to a Million-Dollar Milestone: The Story of Miracles for Myeloma
Since 2013, Ron and Sheree Pask have been the lead volunteer organizers of Miracles for Myeloma, a 5K Walk/Run in Clark, New Jersey. In 2026, they experienced a banner year, by raising more funds for the International Myeloma Foundation than ever before: More than $1 million.
What has developed into an extravagant event began with grassroots connections. Diagnosed with myeloma in 2007, Sheree Pask shared why she gives back to this day. Sheree said, “It’s a hard feeling of not knowing. There’s nothing you personally can do except to follow doctor’s orders. Ron and I were talking, and I always wanted to do something to help raise money, to do something that maybe was within my control. Because you know, living with myeloma, you can feel very out of control.”
A Friendship Rooted in Shared Experience
What started as an impulse for Sheree was soon orchestrated into a major fundraiser. In 2012, Sheree was teaching preschool. Gina Klemm, a mother of two, had one of her children at that same preschool. Gina’s brother Frank Guarino had been diagnosed with myeloma in June 2011.
Gina and Sheree learned of one another’s relationship to multiple myeloma through the director of the preschool, and the two women became friends.
Unfortunately, Frank’s disease rapidly advanced and he passed of myeloma in December 2012. Ron and Sheree attended Frank’s wake. While they were there, Sheree remembers, “Looking around, I happened to see a lot of running bibs. So Frank was obviously a runner.”
Sheree took this as her cue. When she hugged Gina goodbye at the wake, she suggested Gina call the Pasks once Gina felt ready.
About a month later, that call arrived. Ron and Sheree presented Gina with the idea of doing some sort of walk. At the time, they thought it would be a “one-time thing.” Together, the three set out to launch the inaugural Miracles for Myeloma 5K Walk/Run in 2013.
From a One-Time Walk to a 14-Year Tradition
What started as a “one-time thing” has become an annual event for 14 consecutive years. Today, the Pasks encourage others in the myeloma community to give back if they can. While a fundraiser may seem daunting, Ron says, “You have the support of the IMF. Every person we’ve met from the IMF, from 14 years ago to today, has been wonderful, caring, and supportive. Also, you have people in your life that can help. It takes that sort of concerted effort. And, with Miracles for the Myeloma, the IMF lets us take the ball and run with it. If we drop it, they are always there to help.”
Ron and Sheree have discovered they each bring their own expertise to making the fundraiser a success.
Ron says, “I’m the tech guru. I’ll work with the IMF on the website. I’ll send out the emails and the flyers.”
Sheree adds, “I’m more the people person. I add personal touches, whether it’s my own story, or our Remembrance Path.”
Remembrance, Research, and Real-World Impact
With an additional donation, participants of the 5K can purchase a placard on the Miracles for Myeloma Remembrance Path. Sheree says, “You can honor somebody either living with myeloma with a heart-shaped maroon balloon along the path, or someone who has passed of the disease with a heart-shaped white balloon. And I feel like that sort of personal touch is unreal. You see that there are real people who are living with this, including myself, and we are touching them.”
The Pasks have seen the impact of their work on patients and their loved ones, as well as on their healthcare team and on myeloma researchers.
Sheree says, “My local oncologist comes to walk when he can, and my myeloma specialist from Hackensack, NJ, spoke at many past years' 5Ks.”
Additionally, for several years, the funds from Miracles for Myeloma directly benefited the IMF’s Brian D. Novis Research Grant program, which pairs researchers with fundraisers. Through this relationship, the Pasks had the pleasure of meeting many researchers in the field of myeloma, and they even keep in touch with a few of them. Sheree says, “It’s just a feeling that is hard to describe because it’s such a reality check. It makes it so real that the person is actually going to do something because we’ve made a difference. We’re all so overwhelmed. They’re so happy. They’re so appreciative!”
The Resilience That Keeps the Event Going
The IMF is duly appreciative of the Pasks for their time-tested endeavors. When faced with the pandemic in 2020, they adapted Miracles for Myeloma into a virtual event, and for that reason, it is still a hybrid (both virtual and in-person) Walk/Run today.
Ron says, “I think the resilience of everyone and everything to still roll with the punches and keep going and doing, is why we can do this today. We have an amazing group of people in our committee. And on the day of the race, we have a lot of volunteers who help us.”
Yet Ron and Sheree both insist, “We don’t think we need to be on a pedestal. We’re all very much sitting at the same place. Because myeloma doesn’t wait, so neither do we.”
A Banner Moment for the Entire Community
The Pasks had a banner made for this million-dollar milestone. They revealed the banner during the speeches at the beginning of the Walk/Run, along with the amount raised — more than $1 million — with a drum roll that all participants joined in to create.
The IMF could not be more grateful or inspired by this couple and the community that surrounds them. To find out how you can give back to the myeloma community, contact the IMF Development Team at [email protected]. No event is too small, and as the Pasks say, “For everyone involved, fundraising is a wonderful, exhilarating feeling.”
