Bayside man walks to fight MS

Bayside resident Harry Bernstein started taking part in the 12.5 mile New York City Multiple Sclerosis Walk 10 years ago when his wife, Liz, was diagnosed with the chronic and devastating disease of the central nervous system that often strikes people in the prime of their life. This news arrived just two years after Liz’s younger sister, Janet, was diagnosed with the same affliction at the age 37.
“I remember waiting in the cold by the Hudson River for the walk to begin and finishing at the World Trade Center, an experience I will never forget,” Bernstein said. “I just thought it was something I could do to get involved. … I wandered over to Manhattan that day [ten years ago] and signed up, did the walk that time and decided it would be something I would do on a continual basis, and I’ve been doing it ever since.”
Bernstein didn’t just walk the 12.5 miles every year; he formed a joint team in honor of his wife and sister-in-law that includes 15 coworkers, relatives and neighbors named “Lizzie’s Angels and Janet’s Little Devils.”
The team has increased the amount of money raised each year. Last spring they garnered $6,000; this year Bernstein, 60, a business management professor at Essex County College in New Jersey, has already raised $5,000 on his own. He hopes to surpass last year’s total by Sunday, April 23rd in the New York City MS Walk at the South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan.
Money raised from the MS Walk goes towards research on treatment for the more than 400,000 Americans living with MS, as well as for client programs for the estimated 10,000 people with MS in New York City and their family and friends. Last year the New York City MS Walk raised over $3 million and this year’s goal is $3.3 million.
Today, Liz attends yoga, pilates and swim classes, aided by the funds raised from the MS Walk. She is able to drive thanks to special hand controls on her steering wheel that allows her to steer with her right hand and push the brake and gas pedal using a rod with her left hand. Through the MS society’s programs she has created a network of friends who share her vision for a life that will not be interrupted by MS.