Giving Rye is a feature series highlighting non-profits and community groups in and around the City of Rye. Today meet Heidi Kitlas of Soul Ryeders.
Your Name: Heidi Kitlas
Name of your organization: Soul Ryeders
Your role: Executive Director
MyRye.com: Tell us your organization’s mission
Kitlas: Soul Ryeders provides personalized resources, innovative programs and community support to anyone in the New York Tri-State area impacted by any type of cancer.
How long have you operated in or around Rye?
Kitlas: 18 years, since 2007.
What programming or work is the organization best known for?
Kitlas: Whether someone is newly diagnosed, in treatment or post-treatment, we provide individualized, supportive services and programming to anyone with any type of cancer and their caregivers. Our personalized resources and care are created with the understanding of our client’s unique experience.
- Initial interaction and services: Once someone reaches out for support, our team connects with them to understand their specific circumstance and diagnosis. Within the following weeks, each client will have the opportunity to be fitted for a wig, receive care packages delivered to their doorstep and receive one-on-one sessions with our clinical social worker to help them navigate their experience.
- Support groups, classes and workshops: After the initial introduction to our services, clients have full access to our weekly Yoga 4 Cancer and Meditation classes, monthly educational and therapeutic workshops, as well as support groups and the opportunity to be connected with a peer mentor.
- Volunteer efforts: With over 900 volunteers annually, we are able to provide personalized touches through homemade items for our clients, deliver care packages, and be connected with someone who has had cancer and now supports our clients through one-on-one connection. Our volunteers also make our two main events – our Half Marathon & 5K and TieTheTownPink Campaign – successful through many roles that promote our mission and raise crucial funds for our sustainability.
Looking forward to 2026, what will be your top initiatives?
Kitlas:
- Our Peer Mentor Program launched two years ago as a pilot program where we trained eight cancer survivors as volunteer peer mentors to add to the depth of individualized connection and support for our clients. We looked forward to training additional volunteers as peer mentors to be available for more clients.
- We have an active group of teens who volunteer and we are now looking for ones who are interested in a deeper level of commitment. These individuals will become teen ambassadors and have consistent volunteer projects and/or a larger overall project to partner with us on.
- For our half marathon & 5K, we are focused on enhancing our engagement and support of survivors and caregivers who are participating in the event. Through pre-event support and team coordination, our goal is to provide the connection needed to make the completion of the half or 5K a reality for as many as we can who have been impacted by cancer.
Tell us about the population you serve and how they can get involved with your programming and services.
Kitlas: Soul Ryeders serves anyone who has or has had a cancer diagnosis and those who care for them. Anyone interested in our programs and services can complete our new client/caregiver intake form on our website or give us a call. Once you reach out, our intake coordinator will connect with you and determine how best we can be there for you. A few options are:
- One-on-one time with our clinical social worker to gain resources for your specific diagnosis and situation
- Meet a volunteer Wig Advisor to be fitted for a wig
- Join a Yoga4Cancer class, Meditation & Conversation group, one of our support groups
- Be connected with a community of care and support during your cancer experience
Are you a 501(c)(3) non-profit with tax exempt status?
Kitlas: Yes.
Looking back across 2025, what were your organization’s top achievements?
Kitlas:
- We partnered with the Woman to Woman Program at Mt. Sinai in NYC to create a collaborative relationship and provide our wigs to their patients. We trained their volunteers to become Wig Advisors and manage the ongoing coordination to broaden the reach of our wig services to those in need.
- We also partnered with Meals on Main Street in Port Chester to utilize their kitchen for our Nourish Your Soul program. Our volunteers are now cooking and baking homemade food to deliver to our clients as a part of our care package program.
- Our Hope tent at our annual half marathon & 5K was named this year and the numbers of race event participants who visit the tent, for survivors and caregivers, continues to grow. More teams dedicated to support someone impacted by cancer grew as well as we cheered on over 1,800 finishers on race day.
How can local residents support your organization?
Kitlas: There are three main ways you can connect with Soul Ryeders:
- Refer someone: If you know of someone who has been diagnosed with cancer and could use our support, you can tell them about us and direct them to our website to complete a new client form so we can provide them with individualized care and resources.
- Volunteer: We have opportunities for all ages with various time commitments to create handmade items for our clients, tie bows for TieTheTownPink or be a course marshal for our race. If you are an individual, club, school group or corporation, visit our volunteer page on our website to reach out and learn more.
- Donate: Our organization can provide resources to those who have a cancer diagnosis due to your generous philanthropic support. Individual donations are our foundational base of funding to ensure that anyone who reaches out to us receives compassion, connection and personalized care.
What local Rye residents and area businesses have been the longest, steadiest supporters of your organization?
Kitlas: Soul Ryeders was founded by Sandy Samberg with the support of numerous friends and family, who over the years participated in the Avon walk to raise donations that ultimately funded the initial programs that became the start of our organization. Sandy, our founding board members – including Laura DeVita, Mark Doran, Dawn Ewing, Pati Holmes, William Miller, Tiffany O’Toole, Emily Sharko, and Kerri Winderman – and our founding philanthropic Giving Circle members have made significant contributions of time, talent and financial investment to ensure the success of our mission.
Tell us about you:
How long have you been in your current role?
Kitlas: Four and a half years as Executive Director.
Is the role full time or part time? Paid or volunteer?
Kitlas: Full time employee.
How would your friends and family describe you in one word?
Kitlas: Caring.
Where did you grow up?
Kitlas: I grew up in Allendale, NJ. I lived there my entire childhood with my parents and three siblings in a great old house that was never finished and always in the midst of a project.
What principles guide you when you have to make a difficult decision?
Kitlas: I feel it is important to know one’s core values to utilize as a guide. I also try to make the best decision with the information I have at the time and not expect I can guarantee the outcome but try to accept the outcome.
What excites you most about the future—for yourself or for the world?
Kitlas: I see amazing efforts happening every day on the local level through individuals whose concern and care for their community drives them to do better. These efforts, in Rye and my hometown, are inspiring to focus on. Seeing good happen gives me hope.
Where do you live and how many years have you lived there?
Kitlas: I live in Beacon, NY, a town settled between the Hudson River and Mt. Beacon, for the past 16 years.
Thanks Heidi!
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