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The starting line at the Tunnel to Towers 5K race was lined with American flags. Photo by John Davies

By Jane Koropsak

My feet hit the floor at 4:30 a.m. and for one fleeting moment I wondered why I was up so early on a Sunday morning.

Then, I remembered. Today, Sept. 27, I would participate in the Tunnel to Towers 5K fundraiser in New York City to honor every firefighter who gave the ultimate sacrifice on Sept. 11, 2001, including Stephen Siller, the New York City FDNY firefighter for whom the fundraiser is named.

On that fateful day that changed our nation forever, Siller put on 60 pounds of gear and ran from the Battery Tunnel to the Towers, and 14 years later I was joining thousands of others in retracing his steps.

Duffle bag on my shoulder filled with water, snacks and extra clothes, I headed to the Mastic Fire Department to meet up with some of my colleagues from the Brookhaven Lab and friends from the fire department for our journey to Brooklyn, where the 5K begins.

While waiting for the race to start, standing amid 30,000 people, my eyes teared up during a beautiful rendition of “God Bless America.” The anticipation filled my senses and I wasn’t sure what to expect, as this was my first time at this event. When I saw nearly 7,000 American flags lining the starting line of the race — each flag representing a member of the military who has died for our nation since Sept. 11, 2001 — the tears came once again. It was heart-wrenching.

Soon, we turned a corner and walked under an arch of red, white and blue balloons to start the 5K through the Battery Tunnel. I walked, others ran, and as we all entered the tunnel, we heard hundreds of people chanting “U-S-A, U-S-A” in unison.

Cheerleaders lined the streets. Musicians played on corners. It all gave me goose bumps and prompted me to pick up my pace. Before I knew it, I started running — something I don’t typically do. When we reached the end of the tunnel, we saw streams of sunlight and were greeted by 343 firefighters in their formal uniforms, each holding a flag with an image of a firefighter who perished on 9/11 — 343 heroes who never went home. I proudly high-fived each firefighter standing in line along the route, saying thanks over and over and how much I appreciate all they do every day.

Five kilometers from the start and I was no longer the same person.

When I boarded the bus early that morning I knew how brave these men and women are. I knew that they go to work every day not knowing whether they or a fellow firefighter may not make it home, and I knew that their passion is only felt by a few. You see, I am the sister of an FDNY captain and I am the daughter of a volunteer firefighter who gave the ultimate sacrifice 26 years ago while fighting a fire in my hometown of Sayville. I know personally of their sacrifices and the countless hours they spend training and helping others. During Tunnel to Towers I felt the indescribable deep passion of what it must be like to be a firefighter. And, on the bus ride home, I had time to tuck away the memories of the day for an entry that will have a dog-eared page in my journal.

I salute all of our firefighters, emergency responders, police and military personnel.

I promise I will never forget.

The author works in the Media & Communications Department at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Photos by Mark D’Angio and Victoria Espinoza

Cow Harbor Weekend kicked off this past Saturday, Sept. 19 in Northport with the Great Cow Harbor 10K Race. Hundreds participated, some dressed in costumes. The festivities continued on Sunday, Sept. 20 with the Cow Harbor Day Parade. Many floats included congratulations to Northport Village Police Chief Ric Bruckenthal, who is retiring on Sept. 26. Northport residents came out in large numbers, with many dogs in attendance as well, to celebrate Cow Harbor Day.

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Runners kick off at last year’s Great Cow Harbor 10K Run, the anchor event of the annual Cow Harbor Weekend festivities in Northport Village. File photo by Mark D’Angio

Thousands will flock to Northport Village to enjoy the annual Cow Harbor Weekend activities this weekend, but one will be doing it for the last time.

Anchored by the Great Cow Harbor 10K run on Saturday morning, Cow Harbor Weekend also includes a Saturday night concert and a parade and fair in the village on Sunday.

This year will be unique in that it is the last year Ken Savin, longtime Cow Harbor Weekend events chairman, will be organizing the festivities. In a phone interview on Tuesday, Savin said the task of managing the growing, nationally ranked was too large to continue with little help.

“It’s an enormous amount of work,” Savin, a Northport attorney, said. “I can’t do it. The volunteers just aren’t there anymore.”

Savin’s been at the helm for 10 years.

Aside from this year being the last for Savin, not much is different about this year’s race compared to previous years, he said. It has grossed about 5,000 participants, which is typical of previous years, he said.

“It’s the same Northport community, family-oriented day,” he said.

The band Group Therapy will perform on Saturday, Savin said.

The race will go on even after Savin leaves, he said — noting that the race committee has gotten prep down to a science. It’s unclear, however, who will step up to take charge over the rest of the weekend’s events.

On Sunday, the day begins with a parade down Main Street at noon. The parade features local bands, floats, sports teams, high school marching bands, antique cars and more.

Savin said an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 spectators flood the village on Saturday to witness the race, and somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 people attend the Sunday festivities.

Asked why he thinks the race has grown in popularity in its nearly 40 years, Savin said he thinks it’s because “it’s consistent.

“Number one it’s a 10K race, not a 5K,” he said. “The location, you can’t pick a better location as far as scenery and it’s got the challenge of the hills. There are just so many things.”

For more information, visit cowharborrace.com.

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Students from Harbor Ballet Theatre perform a dragon dance at last year’s festival. Photo from PJCC

Dragons will roar as the Greater Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce will once again host the Port Jefferson Dragon Boat Festival on Saturday, Sept. 19, at the Mayor Jeanne Garant Harborfront Park, 101 E. Broadway, from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“This year’s ‘Dragons’ is bigger and better than last year! With the expansion of teams, entertainment and food, this festival has something for everyone,”  said Barbara Ransome, director of operations at the Port Jefferson Chamber of Commerce.

“One goal this year was to create a more interactive program for the day for not just the teams but for spectators as well, including bringing in the racing course closer to land for better viewing. Collaborating with more community partners makes this event inclusive to our residents and visitors,” she added. Ransome came up with the idea of creating this festival after attending a similar event in Cape May, N.J., a few years ago.

An opening ceremony will include an Asian color guard along with the blessing of the fleet by Buddhist Monk Bhante Nanda of the Long Island Buddhist Meditation Center, incorporating the traditional eye dotting ceremony to kick off the races.

Twenty-four teams will compete in a 250-meter course in  four dragon boats provided by the High Five Dragon Boat Company and will include representatives from local hospitals, civic groups, businesses and cultural organizations. Each team will be made up of 20 “paddlers,” one steersman and one drummer. Heats will run all day with a culmination  of an awards ceremony at the end of the day.

In addition to the races, there will be a day-long festival featuring numerous performances, including a lion dance, Taiko and Korean drum performances and Asian singing and instrumentals along with educational and cultural displays and vendors. Various Asian delicacies, including pot stickers, lo mein, bánh mì Vietnamese pork sandwiches, sushi, stir-fried noodles, bubble tea and spring rolls, will be available.

Along with traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy, there will be dragon sculptures, an opportunity to paint “dragon” eggs and children’s crafts. New this year is a Fortune Cookie raffle sponsored by the Fortunato Breast Health Center, Asian souvenirs, a photo booth, photo opportunities with a friendly dragon and team contests for the best team T-shirt and best costumed drummer.

Sponsors include Confucius Institute of Stony Brook, LONGISLAND.com, New York Community Bank-Roslyn Savings Division, Fortunato Breast Health Center, SCNB Bank, Tritec, News 12, Times Beacon Record Newspapers and Unity SEO Solutions.

The event will be held rain or shine and admission is free. Bring a blanket or lawn chair and come enjoy the festivities. For more information, call 631-473-1414 or visit www.portjeffdragonracefest.com.

Port Jefferson Yacht Club hosted its sixth annual Village Cup Regatta on Saturday, raising funds for pancreatic cancer research through the Lustgarten Foundation and for John T. Mather Memorial Hospital’s palliative medicine program.

The regatta pits the hospital and Port Jefferson Village against one another in a friendly competition for the Village Cup, a trophy which the hospital has now won two years in a row following a village reign of three years.

Participants raised about $64,000 for the cause through this year’s race, according to yacht club member Chuck Chiaramonte. The sum will be split between the Lustgarten Foundation and the palliative care program, which is focused on improving patients’ quality of life.

Chiaramonte said over the six years of the regatta, the event has raised more than $300,000.

The yacht club — formerly known as the Setauket Yacht Club — supplied the boats and captains for the event, which included a parade of boats, games and face painting for children at the harborfront park, and a trophy presentation at the adjacent Village Center.

Chiaramonte said the club looks forward to the event every year.

“It was really meant to just be a joyous occasion and share the love of the water and boating with our neighbors,” he said.

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Young runners race around the track. Photo by Alex Petroski

The Ward Melville girls’ track and field team has found a way to raise money for its season while also providing families with young children from the district with a fun night to get out and exercise.

This is the third summer that the girls, lead by varsity coach Tom Youngs and junior varsity coach J.P. Deon, have organized races on six nights to host about 150 kids, though as many as 175 showed up on one night, from the community at the high school track.

“It [has] been really successful,” Youngs said of the three-year run of race nights, which took a hiatus last summer to allow for a new track to be put in at the high school. “We’ve gotten a lot of good feedback from the community.”

Nicole Murphy, a senior on the track team, also enjoys seeing the support the team gets during race nights.

“It’s nice to see everyone get together to participate in something,” Murphy said.

A little girl crosses the finish line in a 55-meter run. Photo by Alex Petroski
A little girl crosses the finish line in a 55-meter run. Photo by Alex Petroski

“It’s a great thing for the kids,” Tracy Seedorf, a community member and a parent of one of the runners, said. “My kid doesn’t play soccer. She’s not a ‘contact sport’ girl, so this is great. This makes it easier, especially when there’s a lot of kids here. It’s more fun for them.”

The race nights feature six events of various distances, with heats in each event for age group ranges.

“It’s a good opportunity for community members and their children, keeping them active and healthy throughout the summer months when they have that time to sit on the couch or just lay on the beach,” Youngs said. “It gives them something to look forward to every Thursday night.”

At the end of each race, members of the varsity track team wait at the finish line to write down the kid’s times on stickers that are stuck to runners shirts. The kids and their parents are encouraged to track their times in the various events to see their progress over the course of the summer.

“It’s nice to tie in the community,” Deon said. He added that a great deal of parents, and even grandparents’ involvement, is as a huge part of why the event has been successful. Ages of the runners span from 2 years old up to 12 or 13.

“I think they should start at an early age,” a parent, Marty Johnson, said of the importance of getting kids active, and also allowing them to socialize with their peers. Johnson said it was easy getting his kids enthusiastic about events like these. “My kids love being outside.”

Registration costs $5 a night per child, and three more race night events remain this year, including tonight. The registration period ends at 5:30 p.m. each Thursday, and races begin at 6 p.m. All of the funds raised go to the girls’ track team to be used for meets, invitationals, overnight trips and transportation.

By Dan Woulfin

Northport celebrated new and old traditions on land and by sea this past Saturday, June 13.

The Northport Running Club held its inaugural Northport Nautical Mile Run, a downhill 1.15-mile race with hundreds of participants through the heart of Northport and ending at the foot of the harbor.

Afterward, the Coast Guard auxiliary and local clergy held the annual Blessing of the Fleet at the village docks to mark the start of the summer season.

1.15-mile race will end at the harbor

Members of the Northport Running Club in their element. The Northport Nautical Mile is open to participants age 15 and up. Photo from Stewart MacLeod

The first ever Northport Nautical Mile race will take place on Saturday, June 13, in Northport Village.

The downhill 1.15-mile race will go through the heart of Northport and end at the foot of the harbor. The race is meant to be fast, fun and family-friendly.

“We wanted to do something a little different, a little unique and specific to Northport,” Stewart MacLeod, the race director for the Northport Running Club said in a phone interview. That’s why the race is a nautical mile instead of an average one-mile run. A nautical mile is a term used in measuring distances at sea.

There will be an award ceremony held at the gazebo at the waterfront park, along with raffles and refreshments. At 11 a.m., the annual Blessing of the Fleet ceremony will take place, which includes participation by local officials as well as clergymen from multiple denominations. The Northport Farmers Market will also be in full swing, featuring vendors from all across Long Island.

The race will have a male and female wave, but there are no age distinctions within each wave. Runners age 15 and up are welcome to participate.

The Northport Running Club organizes the race, and approximately 400 participants are expected. Trophies will be awarded to the overall first, second and third place male and female finishers.

Many establishments in Northport are sponsoring this race, including Skipper’s Pub, Copenhagen Bakery, the Great Cow Harbor 10K Run and more. Main Street will be closed for the duration of the race, with the official start at William J. Brosnan School on Laurel Avenue.

It costs $20 to enter the race before June 6, and $25 after that. You can register online at www.nrcrun.org/events-and-races/northport-nautical-mile.

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Runners pounded the pavement of North Country Road in Miller Place on Sunday for the 19th annual Joe Keany 5K Run/Walk.

The race honors the late Joe Keany, a 1986 Miller Place High School graduate who excelled at cross country and track. Keany was a member of the school’s 1984 county championship cross country team, and received All-County honors in the sport and All-Conference honors in track.

More than 250 people completed the five-kilometer race and another 105 completed a one-mile fun run.