Olympic Center General Manager R. Dennis “Denny” Allen poses in the Herb Brooks Arena on April 20, 2018, a week before his retirement. On Feb. 1 the following year, he died of a heart attack. (News photo — Andy Flynn)

LAKE PLACID — The annual Skate With Your Heart fundraiser is scheduled for 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 14 at the Olympic Center’s 1932 Rink.

The event is a benefit for the R. Dennis Allen Cardiac Prevention Fund to create heart-healthy communities in the Adirondack region. The fund was set up to honor former Olympic Center General Manager R. Dennis “Denny” Allen, who died of a heart attack on Feb. 1, 2019, less than one year after he retired from the state Olympic Regional Development Authority. His cardiovascular problems weren’t known until after his death. His wife, Dr. Karen Cooper of Lake Placid, donated $25,000 to set up the fund through the Adirondack Foundation.

“Prevention is the key. Den didn’t have the symptoms,” Cooper said before the first Skate With Your Heart event was held in February 2020. “We had climbed mountains two months before in Iceland, no problems, no symptoms. And then when we did his post(mortem), he had triple-vessel disease. … He’s one of those rare cases.”

The event is free and open to the public, and funds are raised through donations, sales of T-shirts and homemade cookies and raffle items: two jerseys from the 1980 Olympic “Miracle on Ice” hockey team.

The fund is committed to fighting this disease through providing preventative education for both youth and adults while also offering resources to at-risk patients in partnership with the cardiologists at Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital (CVPH) in Plattsburgh.

Karen Cooper, far right, poses with 1980 Olympic Winter Games mascot Roni Raccoon and a skater during a past Skate With Your Heart fundraiser for the R. Dennis Allen Cardiac Prevention Fund in the 1932 Olympic Arena. (Provided photo)

The CVPH Cardiology office reported that the R. Dennis Allen Cardiac Prevention Fund was the catalyst for establishing a support program for cardiac patients. The biggest need was to help pay for prescription coverage for patients.

“Since January of this year,” the CVPH Cardiology reported on Aug. 15, 2022, “ten community residents have received assistance for medication needs that they could not afford. It is believed that without this fund, each patient would either go without the lifesaving medications or sacrifice something else in their life such as food or electricity.”

As of Aug. 15, 2022, the fund had donated $3,700 to help CVPH Cardiology patients with medication.

Many residents in Clinton, Essex and Franklin counties go to CVPH Cardiology for their regular cardiology checkups, tests, procedures and surgeries.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death among men and women in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with about 695,000 people in the U.S. dying from heart disease in 2021.

Every year, about 805,000 people in the U.S.have a heart attack, according to the CDC. Of these, 605,000 are a first heart attack, 200,000 happen to those who have already had a heart attack and about 20% of heart attacks are silent — like Denny Allen’s.

“The damage is done, but the person is not aware of it,” the CDC states.

Those wishing to donate directly to the R. Dennis Allen Cardiac Prevention Fund can do so on the fund’s page on the Adirondack Foundation website at https://tinyurl.com/332crwk9.