Congratulations to 14-year-old Anthony Diaz of Farmingdale, who was presented with an award at the Greater Long Island Running Club’s Awards Night on Dec. 19. The Awards Night was held in the Auditorium of the Plainview-Old Bethpage Public Library in front of a near capacity audience.
Diaz was the club’s 2017 Champion in the 14 and under age group, earning the distinction by his performance in the many races hosted by the Club in the Calendar year 2017.
“We are thrilled with the accomplishments of Anthony Diaz over the year 2017, and this evening presented a special opportunity to recognize him as one of ‘the best of the best,’” observed Running Club President Mike Polansky. “Anthony is still only a Freshman at Farmingdale High School, and we can only imagine the running accomplishments he will achieve in the future.”
In addition, several runners from around the Island turned out for the Carter, DeLuca, Farrell & Schmidt Ho Ho Ho 5 Kilometer Run, held on the streets of Bethpage on Saturday morning, Dec. 16. Although the conditions were much less than perfect, nearly 800 runners and walkers covered the 3.107 miles through the streets of Bethpage, including lots of Santas, snowmen, elves and others.
Congratulations and thanks to Race Director Ric DiVeglio for another outstanding job of putting all the pieces together; to the Melville Intellectual Property law firm of Carter, DeLuca, Farrell & Schmidt for supporting the event as the title sponsor once again; and to Local 338 RWDSU/UFCW, Steel Equities and Gold Coast Studios for reenlisting as our Presenting Sponsors,. Thanks also to All Round Foods for donating a great array of baked goods for the post-run festivities, and for the donation of Hot Chocolate for the runners by Woodbury Country Deli.
The host Greater Long Island Running Club was thrilled to have the running community’s own Nassau County Legislator Rose Marie Walker on hand to help get things started.
The charitable beneficiary of the run was once again the Dominican Sisters, in support of The Opening Word, an education program that enables poor and uneducated Long Island immigrant women the English language and other tools they need to become productive members of American society. In addition, thanks to the generosity of race participants, we were able to turn over hundreds of toys to the John Theissen Foundation for distribution to needy Long Island children.
“We are grateful to everyone who helped close out the 2017 Long Island racing year in style on Dec. 16,” stated the running club’s Race Director Ric DiVeglio. “We look forward to seeing Liz and Michael and everyone else again at our 31st annual holiday excursion through the streets of Bethpage on Dec. 15, 2018.”
—Submitted by the Greater Long Island Running Club
