A fitness and wellness festival will fill Washington Park on Saturday, Sept. 19, with all proceeds going to a fund honoring a 25-year-old woman who died of a rare ovarian cancer.
The ALIVE Festival runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Burlingame Avenue park and features 12 instructor-led classes, according to the event's ticketing page on Sweatpals. Tickets start at $25. The format is drop-in, so attendees can move between sessions.
Classes include pilates, yoga, qigong and a sound bath. One listed session, "Wake Up, Warm Up, Just Dance," is led by instructor Kim Yee. A vendor village will offer massages, matcha and raffles.
Every dollar raised goes to the Wendy Tam MOC Research Fund, established through the Mucinous Ovarian Cancer Coalition (MOCC).
Wendy Tam was 23 when she was diagnosed with Stage 2C mucinous adenocarcinoma in September 2023, after doctors found a 20-centimeter mass on her left ovary, according to MOCC's memorial page. Mucinous ovarian cancer is a rare subtype that accounts for only 3 percent of ovarian cancers. Tam received care at Stanford and Sutter Health and underwent a heated chemotherapy procedure called HIPEC, but the cancer returned. She died Nov. 20, 2025.
A UC San Diego graduate who had interned at Genentech, Tam was stepping into a full-time role at PricewaterhouseCoopers when she received her diagnosis.
Her sister, Annie Tam, launched the research fund and a GoFundMe campaign shortly after Wendy's death. Writing on the campaign page in November 2025, Annie Tam said Wendy's wish before she died "was to leave a lasting impact on this disease so that other young women might have hope and more options."
The campaign had raised more than $51,000 from 629 donors toward a $62,000 goal as of Friday, Sept. 18. Donations are being matched one-to-one.
The Burlingame Chamber of Commerce is promoting the festival on its social media channels. Tickets are available at sweatpals.com/event/alive-festival.
Coming up in Burlingame and Hillsborough:
- Saturday, Sept. 19: ALIVE Festival, Washington Park, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tickets from $25 at sweatpals.com/event/alive-festival.
- Monday, Sept. 21: Hillsborough Recreation Commission votes on AYSO contract.
- Saturday, Sept. 26: Burlingame nonprofit chalk competition and festival.
