An announcement from Olivia Achtmeyer Boger, Executive Director:

First and foremost, we hope that you and your loved ones are safe and healthy right now. Earlier this week, I sent our models a special video message, and today, I emailed one out to our community of donors and supporters to let them know about our plans for The Runway Show this October. Simply stated, we are forgoing in-person events until we are sure that we can keep our community safe. Right now, safety means a time when a vaccine is readily available to the general public. The information that we have at this point in May–a moment in the calendar year when our planning starts in full swing for our fall event–does not indicate that a vaccination will be available for everyone by October. Our work this year, therefore, is quite difficult as we must depend on the generosity of our Runway community without being able to see them in-person. Those who believe in our mission and are forever connected because of the impact that breast cancer has had on their lives must also now content with the impact that COVID is placing on our lives.

We are therefore remaining focus on the families have had a loved one pass away to breast cancer. While they could never have imagined losing their moms or dads to cancer, no one could have imagined that they are now faced with the uncertainty of COVID and this pandemic. Runway remains vital in their recovery. We remain determined to fund these families and new families at a high level so that they can focus on their grieving and not the financial burden left behind because of a parent dying. Now their needs are even greater as they face unemployment and uncertainty. And so now Runway must be as strong as ever — cancer does not take a time-out because of a pandemic and neither does Runway.

Finally, we are committed to keeping programming and support in place for the models who bravely take to the stage every October.  New models have agreed to be welcomed into our community; alumni models have stepped up to mentor; and all of them have them have quickly committed to helping us create a video for the virtual event that will leave us all inspired. With our models doing their part, we are hopeful that our community can do theirs as well. The mission that inspired Runway’s inception remains the cornerstone of our work — and the Runway is Shorter When We Walk Together.

In lieu of ticket prices this year, we are asking you to consider funding a need for our Family Grants program. For your generosity, we promise, as always, to provide you with many moments of hope and inspiration along the way, and certainly, on Wednesday, October 28, 2020, we will bring you a live, virtual event that will leave you joyful and ready to keep dancing until we see you again in person.

Thank you Runway community and we will be in touch again soon. If you are not following us on Instagram, I strongly suggest adding us to your life — the content is powerful and meant to inspire hope.

We Hope You Keep Dancing in 2020.