Fri. June 17th
Wow! Another great “B+ 5k”!!!
We had over 2,000 participants and who knows how many spectators for an exciting night last night. The B+ Race Car and a Pace Car from New Jersey Motorsports Park, venue for the July 23rd “B+ Foundation Heroes 200” race, led the runners and walkers around the beautiful course along the Brandywine River. There was a TON of free food and our B+ Heroes were honored with a B+ cookie on a stick (courtesy of Eva Sauer), a gift bag from author, Kevin Rebbie, and a toy courtesy of Sharon Snyder of “Kisses for Kyle”. Best of all, the B+ Heroes received a VERY loud, and well-deserved round of applause.
Within seconds of the awards and recognition being over, the sky opened up and ‘clean-up’ duty was more than a little wet. No big deal – it encouraged us to move really fast! 🙂
Thank you to everyone who came out, who donated money or product, and helped out in any way. We are blessed to have a great Planning Committee that deserves big time kudos – Mike Monagle, Jim Walsh, Karen Diana, Chris McDonough, Cathy Gladnick, and Katie Wilson. And, we couldn’t do it without the 75 or so volunteers! In my haste last night, I forgot to thank our contest sponsors and I feel terrible about that. Sweet Lucy’s Ice Cream on Concord Pike donates 100 free ice cream cones every year to the winner of our “Largest Team” prize. And, Delaware Stadium Corporation donates a suite at a Blue Rocks game to the winner of the “Largest Fundraising Team”. The winner of both contests this year was the “SavannahStrong” team in honor of Savannah Pauley and captained by Hannah Gladnick. Please stop by Sweet Lucy’s on Concord Pike and enjoy great ice cream and let them know you appreciate their support of our event. Thank you, Ted and Gretchen Brackin.
Of course, this event could never happen at Andrew’s school, Salesianum, without the tremendous help of Dennis Walker!!!
And, thanks to Nina Tiller and the Maryland Magic team who drove 2 hours to come to our event.
Thank you, also, to WHYY Philadelphia who shadowed me around last night for an upcoming story that they’re doing on The B+ Foundation and our battle against childhood cancers. The more minds and hearts that we can open, the better.
In closing, I have to say this 5k is a really bittersweet event. I love seeing all of families and friends coming together for a nice night of fun. But, it’s never far from my mind why I’m there. As I walked through the school last night, the memory of cleaning out Andrew’s locker came rushing back to me. I remember bringing home his books and his blue blazer. Little did I know that my son would die just 6 weeks later. I saw people sitting on a bench — to them, just a bench…to me, it’s “Andrew’s Bench”. Do people ever notice the plaque on the side of that bench that memorializes my son? I hope so. I’m pretty confident that Andrew would be proud of what we’re doing. But, often times, that’s not enough. I need my buddy here! I love you, Andrew!!!
Live Like Andrew – please honor Andrew by “Living Like Andrew” this weekend…whatever that may mean to you.
Thank you.
B+
I love being….
Ali & Andrew’s Dad