A
FTER STARTING A FAMILY, SHE
SEGUED FROM PERFORMER TO
ENTERTAINMENT DIRECTOR AT MSG.
In 2000, she quit, got married and got pregnant,
all in the span of two weeks. Alterwein started
producing events, booking everyone from Diana
Ross to Flo Rida to Cheap Trick for bar mitzvahs
and corporate events. Eventually she became
entertainment director for Madison Square
Garden, in charge of all the cheerleaders, DJ’s,
singers and halftime shows for the Knicks and
New York Liberty basketball teams.
A
S A TRAINER, SHE HELPS OTHERS
GET FIT.
After a year, James Dolan, the famously volatile
owner of the Knicks, ordered yet another (doomed)
corporate restructuring, and Alterwein was out of a
job. She became a fitness trainer, eventually leading
stationary bike classes at Cyclebar in Montville and
Montclair, plus aerobics classes at the Equinox gym
in Paramus.
S
HE DOESN’T BELIEVE IN HALF-
MEASURES. Given the same diagnosis,
one of Alterwein’s friends chose to treat it with
a lumpectomy and chemotherapy. Aterwein
chose to have both breasts removed.
“If I’m gonna do something, I do it all the way.
I could have another 40, 50, 60 years on this
planet,” she says. “So let me get rid of this thing
once and for all.”
Following her mastectomy, and then her
breast reconstruction, Alterwein laid low. Four
weeks after her second surgery, she climbed
onto a stationary bike. Two weeks after that, she
returned to leading classes. By her 47th birthday,
nine months after she was diagnosed, she had
regained all her cardiovascular strength, “which
is pretty amazing,” she says.
S
HE DYED HER HAIR PINK TO RAISE
AWARENESS. To meet Alterwein today,
the only way to know she once had breast
cancer is the streak of pink hair on the back
of her head. She’s dying it for Breast Cancer
Awareness Month in October, when she plans
to lead special classes and speak at events to
raise money for the Young Survival Coalition,
a nonprofit group that pushes for greater
awareness and research on cancer among
young adults.
“It was shocking how many women came to
me and told me they were survivors,” after she
made her own diagnosis public, Alterwein says.
“I never knew.” ■
MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE FALL 2019
15