(08/05/2009) When Julie Ratner began Ellen’s Run 14 years ago to raise money in memory of her late sister Ellen Hermanson to go toward breast
 Jack Graves
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cancer treatment, prevention, research, and outreach, there were some here who thought the majority of the money wouldn’t stay in town.
But it has, and, Dr. Ratner said during a conversation at The Star the other day, those who once doubted need look no farther than the Ellen Hermanson Breast Center at Southampton Hospital that was to have been formally opened yesterday.
The Ellen Hermanson Foundation, a beneficiary, along with the hospital, of the 5-kilometer Ellen’s Run, which is to be contested Aug. 16 in Southampton, has, all told, donated close to $1 million to the breast center.
“It’s all in one self-contained [3,320-square-foot] area and offers all the breast services — mammography, stereotactic and core biopsy, the services of a full-time breast surgeon, genetic counseling . . . and the South Fork Breast Health Coalition is there too. It’s beautiful. I visited it the other day. It’s a beautiful, warm, inviting environment. There’s a reading room for mammograms, a tech room, a dressing area, and a boutique with mastectomy products and books, and a waiting room.”
Thus, Ratner said, “women who live here on the East End have access to world-class care with the warmth and accessibility of a small-town hospital.”
Two years ago, she said, largely because of the foundation’s commitment, “the American College of Radiology designated this as a breast center of excellence. That’s like getting the Good Housekeeping seal of approval. It means the center is in compliance with rigorous standards, and that the level of care and treatment there meet quantifiable standards. When I tell people that it is a breast center of excellence, you see a difference in how they support Ellen’s Run.”
The race, which has been based at East Hampton High School, will have its start and finish at the hospital this year inasmuch as the high school is at present a vast construction site.
“We’ve had no choice but to move it,” said Ratner, “but it’s fitting given the fact that the breast center is opening. Participants in our race will be able to get tours of it afterward and they’ll be able to say that they have had a part in this. The center doesn’t belong to the foundation — it belongs to the women and families of the East End.”
“I hope people will be inspired to support the center. Whether it’s $10 or $5,000, it all makes a difference.” There would be a wall of honor for those who donate $5,000 or more, “but every donation will be recognized in our annual report.”
Race time is, “as usual,” 9 a.m., “and we’ll have preregistration the day before, from 9 to noon, at the Parrish Hall on the hospital’s grounds on Herrick Road.”
The 5K course, she said, laid out by Howard Lebwith of Springs, was “beautiful. The runners will go down Old Towne Road, make a right on Gin Lane, keep running, and make a right on South Main Street, and a right on Herrick, and end up back at the hospital. Howard calibrated it on his bicycle the other day.”
“The Village of Southampton and Mayor Epley’s office have been wonderful,” she said. “So accommodating and gracious. They’ve made us feel so welcome.”
Still, she said, since everything would be new this year, she would be nervous. “In East Hampton I know the drill. This time I’m sure it will be fine, but I have some anxiety. You know, you never know how many are going to show up. Last year, 500 walked in on race day. I’m always dying that no one’s going to come and then we get lucky. . . . I hope we’ll have 1,000 again. I don’t want the village to have a heart attack, but if 2,000 come I’d be ecstatic.”
Applications and details about a party to be held the night before at Steven Klein’s West Kill Farm in Bridgehampton, near the Channing Daughters Winery, can be had online through ellensrun.org.