The sun shines on historic All Souls Church at annual race in...

The sun shines on historic All Souls Church at annual race in Stony Brook Village

By Daniel Kerr

The sun shined brightly on the 200+ folks (not including the marching dogs) that gathered in front of Stanford White-designed All Souls Church in Stony Brook for the 16th Annual SOLES for All Souls 5K Race/2K Walk on Sunday, Oct. 6.

The large crowd included runners dressed as the Mario Brothers, Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head, “One and ½” bulldogs, butterflies, silver ballerinas, and three generations of skeletons.  Retired Suffolk County Police Sargeant Mark McNulty played the bagpipes to inspire the runners as they began their trek up Hollow Road, and the North Shore Rockers played throughout Registration at the Reboli Center.  Former Suffolk County Poet Laureate Richard Bronson led the annual march of the Live Poets Society, as Barbara Branca read the poems of Barbara Southard.

Suffolk County Legislator Steve Englebright and Brookhaven Town Councilmember Jonathan Kornreich joined All Souls’ own Brave Trio to sing the National Anthem, and our elected representatives thanked the runners and walkers for participating in this very special annual event to celebrate the role of All Souls in the community and to raise funds to make the church and accessible to all.  The large amount of food collected as part of the All Souls “Lend a Hand, bring a Can” food outreach, was transported to St Gerard Majella’s food pantry in Terryville.

For the second consecutive year, Felipe Garcia from Brooklyn was the overall race winner with a time of 17:14 and Margaret Kennedy from Port Jefferson Station was the overall female winner with a time of 21:07. Race co-founder Mary Ellen Doris awarded gold, silver, and bronze medals at the Olympic-style ceremony to various age groups from 13 and under to 80 years and older. Six-year-old Hope Orcel from Stony Brook won the bronze for the female 13 and under group and eighty-five-year-old Rolf Sternglanz from Davie, Florida won the silver for the over 80 group of runners. 

All of the volunteers and sponsors thank the community of runners, walkers, residents and students for their outpouring of love and support.

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