She deserves to win

WARWICK — The call for the coin toss was heads and everyone agreed that the winner of this raffle deserved to win.

The first annual Pink Friday, a celebration to support the battle against breast cancer, was held on Friday evening, Oct. 19.

Proceeds from the event, sponsored by the Warwick Merchant Guild and Bon Secours Charity Health System, were earmarked for Miles of Hope, a nonprofit charity that funds support services and outreach for people affected by breast cancer in the eight counties of the Hudson Valley.

Prior to the celebration, Warwick resident Carol Jeanette Jorgensen, a breast cancer survivor, donated an iPad, valued at $800, to Miles of Hope. Raffle tickets were then sold throughout the Hudson Valley by that organization and by Pink Friday Chairman Tim Mullally, owner of Style Council in Warwick.

During a recent phone call, Pari Forood, executive director of Miles of Hope Breast Cancer Foundation, and Mullally agreed to each pull a ticket and then toss a coin to decide which ticket would be the winner.

Forood, on the other side of the phone line, tossed the coin. Mullally called heads and won the toss.

The winning ticket he had picked belonged to Warwick resident Maria Cod-Perez and the story doesn't end there.

Cod-Perez, a New York City police captain of the 6th Precinct, is a breast cancer survivor and a selfless community volunteer. In 2001, she was selected to be crowned Queen for a Day at the celebration of Ladies Night Out.

At that time Cod-Perez, then a police sergeant, was a cancer survivor who divided her time between her family, her job and worthy causes like the Avon Breast Cancer three-day walk from Bear Mountain to New York City.

Unfortunately, the cancer that Cod-Perez beat twice has returned. She is currently fighting that battle again with lengthy bouts of chemotherapy and radiation. But in between her trips to the hospital, Cod-Perez, her daughter Gillian, 14, and her two sisters found time to spend an entire day delivering much needed items including blankets, towels and cleaning supplies they had gathered for residents of Staten Island, still trying to recover from Hurricane Sandy.

"This prize couldn't have gone to a more deserving person," said Mullally. "And when I explained who she was to the Miles of Hope director, she agreed and said that was always the way."