Larry and Maria Baum Receive Sandra Taub Humanitarian Award

Larry and Maria Baum, co-founders of the annual Hamptons Paddle for Pink, were recognized on Friday, October 16, with Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s (BCRF) highest award, the Sandra Taub Humanitarian Award.

The online award ceremony took place during the foundation’s inaugural Virtual Symposium and Awards Luncheon on Friday. William Kaelin, Jr., MD was also honored with the Jill Rose Award for Scientific Excellence. The BCRF raised a record-breaking $3 million from the event.

Maria Baum, a breast cancer survivor, learned she had a reoccurrence of the disease at the height of the pandemic. She is now undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments. “Soon, I will be able to close the book on this year of treatment and move on again with a clean bill of health because of the incredible work of cancer researchers and doctors,” Baum told BCRF. “I am especially grateful to the brilliant scientists that we fund through grants for literally saving my life and the lives of so many other men and women we all know and love.”

The Baums created the Hamptons Paddle for Pink in 2012, and the annual event has raised $11 million for lifesaving breast cancer research to date. This year, in light of COVID-19, the board members decided to once again host the event, but to reimagine it as a virtual paddle campaign. The first-ever Virtual Hamptons Summer Wellness Symposium took place on August 7.