{"id":84834,"date":"2026-10-25T23:43:54","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T03:43:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/?p=84834"},"modified":"2026-10-25T23:43:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T03:43:54","slug":"batavia-pink-hatters-and-friends-come-together-at-the-downs-to-celebrate-cancer-survivors-and-patients-in-our-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/2026\/10\/25\/batavia-pink-hatters-and-friends-come-together-at-the-downs-to-celebrate-cancer-survivors-and-patients-in-our-community\/","title":{"rendered":"BATAVIA\/Pink Hatters and Friends come together at the Downs to celebrate cancer survivors and patients in our community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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15-year-old Oscar Chojnacki (left) was the guest speaker on Thursday evening for his mother Lynda. Lynda works in oncology at the Lipson Cancer Institute at Rochester Regional Health\/UMMC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So, I really wanted to be here tonight because my mother was offered this last year at Pink Hatters, but she had to turn it down. She gets so nervous with public speaking. At the time that she was diagnosed, I was 10 years old. The world had just shut down from COVID. It was 2022. I really think that our story just needed to get out there. I think that what I have to offer and what I have to say could be really powerful to people because I was so young,” says Oscar Chojnacki, Guest Speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes Oscar says he felt terrified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I didn’t know if I was going to have my mother next year. I hated it. It was horrible. I really had to be that rock. She was always there for me. My mother is my biggest inspiration, I just loved supporting her through everything, all the changes that she went through.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oscar says the situation made him grow up quickly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“I really needed to mature a lot during it. I had to sit through my mother going through chemotherapy when I was 10 years old and it was heartbreaking. She lost her hair. She was weak, she couldn’t even stand up at times, but I was there for her, and I stayed with her the entire thing and now I get to share her story here and I’m so excited. She’s the best mother I could have ever asked for.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The event included entertainment by Biggs Sound, basket raffles, Best Hat Awards, and a Dessert Dash. Associate Chief Operating Officer at UMMC, Sonja Gonyea was the Emcee. Sheema Chawla, MD, DipABLM was the speaker for Rochester Regional Health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

15-year-old Oscar Chojnacki (left) was the guest speaker on Thursday evening for his mother Lynda. Lynda works in oncology at the Lipson Cancer Institute at Rochester Regional Health\/UMMC. “So, I really wanted to be here tonight because my mother was offered this last year at Pink Hatters, but she had \u2026<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84821,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8,23],"tags":[376,1841,926],"class_list":["post-84834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-batavia","category-genesee-county","tag-batavia-downs","tag-pink-hatters","tag-rochester-regional-health"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8eTP4-m4i","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":69400,"url":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/2025\/10\/24\/genesee-county-pink-hatters-and-friends-descend-upon-batavia-downs-on-thursday-evening-to-celebrate-cancer-survivors\/","url_meta":{"origin":84834,"position":0},"title":"GENESEE COUNTY\/Pink Hatters and Friends descend upon Batavia Downs on Thursday evening to celebrate cancer survivors","author":"aka","date":"October 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Batavia Downs was decked out in pink for the Pink Hatters and Friends on Thursday evening. The annual event celebrates cancer survivors and patients in the community and is put on by UMMC\/Rochester Regional. The event also raises money for those battling cancer. 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Rochester Regional Health and the Cancer Services Program of Genesee, Orleans, Wyoming, and Niagara Counties recognized the warriors among us at the annual Pink Hatters & Friends Night Out held at Batavia Downs on Thursday evening. 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The eight women from around the country donated their race proceeds to the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester. The roster of lady drivers appearing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Batavia"","block_context":{"text":"Batavia","link":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/category\/gennesse-county\/batavia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20261017_183805-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C555&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20261017_183805-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C555&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20261017_183805-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C555&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20261017_183805-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C555&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20261017_183805-scaled.jpg?fit=1200%2C555&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":78719,"url":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/2026\/08\/19\/genesee-county-first-year-pacing-fillies-featured-in-nyss-at-batavia-downs-wednesday\/","url_meta":{"origin":84834,"position":5},"title":"GENESEE COUNTY\/First-year pacing fillies featured in NYSS at Batavia Downs Wednesday","author":"aka","date":"August 19, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"By Tim Bojarski, for Batavia Downs (Photo courtesy of Fred Brown)\u00a0 Batavia, NY\u2014 The New York Sire Stakes returns to Batavia Downs on Wednesday (Aug. 19) and will feature two short draws of 2-year-old pacing fillies who will compete for a total purse of $104,000.\u00a0 The first race has a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Batavia"","block_context":{"text":"Batavia","link":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/category\/gennesse-county\/batavia\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Annie-O.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Annie-O.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Annie-O.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Annie-O.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Annie-O.webp?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/videonewsservice.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/20261022_172827-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1315&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84834"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85415,"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84834\/revisions\/85415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/videonewsservice.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}