Caio Damaceno
Adult Honoree
 Caio Damaceno, a fitness coach in Worcester with 15 years of experience, is originally from Brazil. He has been working with Fit Body Boot Camp for the past 6 years.
Three years ago, Fit Body Boot Camp member Rachel Twomey introduced Caio and his team to the Jingle Bell Run. He has been committed to supporting this cause ever since. To Caio the Jingle Bell Run is not just a 5k race, it is a community event that provides hope for people with arthritis and helps them achieve a better quality of life.
Caio enjoys participating in the Jingle Bell Run to be a part of something meaningful and to raise awareness for ALL those impacted by arthritis. |
Dr. Karen Salomon-Escoto is a rheumatologist at UMass Chan Medical School. As the founding director of the Rheumatology Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Program and co-director of the new Inflammatory Arthritis Program, Dr. Salomon-Escoto has made it her mission to improve the lives of patients with arthritis. She is a passionate advocate for initiatives that enhance the patient experience and deliver better clinical outcomes. Her work focuses on leveraging digital technology to provide patient-centered care. In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Salomon-Escoto leads research programs on inflammatory arthritis, while educating the next generation of healthcare professionals as faculty for the UMass Chan rheumatology fellowship, UMass Chan Medical School, and UMass Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing.
Dr. Lo completed her pediatric and pediatric rheumatology training at Boston Children's Hospital, where she has continued to work ever since. Her clinical and research interests are in uveitis, a common and sometimes debilitating complication of juvenile arthritis. Dr. Lo also has an active interest in medical education. As the program director of the fellowship training program at Children's, she is helping to shepherd in the next generation of pediatric rheumatologists. Dr. Lo is an enthusiastic supporter of the Arthritis Foundation’s work to bring families together, and promotes the Arthritis Foundation's Camp Dartmouth-Hitchcock experience in particular to all of her patients! She is thrilled to be this year’s Jingle Bell Run Honoree.
Sammy is in fourth grade and has been living with juvenile idiopathic arthritis since she was two. Despite many flare-ups and medication changes, she is incredibly active. She plays soccer for two teams and is full of energy on the field and off. When she's not playing soccer she loves to snuggle with her stuffies. She has enjoyed connecting with other kids through the Arthritis Foundation's Juvenile Arthritis Family Days and knows that these super fun events are a "silver lining" to the struggles she faces.