Pt. Boro Rotary 5K Kicks Off on June 18th

The Point Pleasant Boro Rotary Club’s 9th annual Kevin A. Brue Melanoma Awareness 5K on June 18 will get the Father’s Day weekend off to a great start and will help battle a horrific disease and assist other charitable causes.

“This race” according Jim Higgins, race director “is one of the many ways that our club joins with the community to have fun and raise money for many worthy causes.”

The 5K and One Mile Fun Run start at Community Park at the intersection of Beaver Dam Road and Bridge Avenue in the Boro. The Fun Run will start at 8:00 a.m. and the featured 5K will go off at 8:30 a.m.

Mr. Higgins stated “Our 5K continues to be one of Point Boro’s ways to welcome the summer season, hold an event to honor dads and raise awareness about melanoma.”

The race is named for Kevin Brue, an avid runner and former Point Boro High School athlete, who passed away in 2010 after a brave struggle with melanoma. In 2011 the race name was modified. His father John Brue, Sr. and his brother, John Brue, Jr. have been a Rotary Club president.

The course begins just outside the park on Beach Boulevard and winds through the Bay Head Shores section of town as runners make their way to Marine Parkway, Riviera Parkway, Blaze Drive, Barnegat Boulevard and Rue Lafayette. The course, essentially unchanged since the first race was held in 2008, finishes in Community Park.

For registration completed by June 14th the fee is $25 for the 5K. After June 14th the fee is $30 for the 5K. The cost, up to and including race day, for the Fun Run will remain at $15.

On Friday, June 17th, runners pre-registered by June 14th can pick up race packets from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Moose Lodge, 706 River Avenue, Point Pleasant.

The top three overall male and female 5K finishers will receive trophies. Medals will be given to leading female and male finishers in the age groups 14 and under; 15-19; 20-29; 30-39; 40-49; 50-59; 60-69; 70-79; and 80-plus.

A trophy will be awarded to the first father to finish. Trophies will be given to the first place male and female finishers in the Fun Run.

T-shirts are guaranteed to runners who register by June 14th.

“The course was altered slightly last year allowing a finish on a straightaway” noted Mr. Higgins “making the finish more competitive and giving friends and supporters of the runners a better view at the end of the race.”

For the second year the 5K is certified by USATF (USA Track & Field) and the race is sanctioned as part of the New Jersey Grand Prix.

SpectaSport, LLC will insure that expedited results are generated electronically on race day.

A race dedicated website (www.ptbororotary.com/page/fathersday5k) is available for race information and registration. Pre-registration can be completed also at www.jerseyrunner.com and www.spectasport.com.

Information about race registration and sponsorship can be obtained by contacting Joe Doherty at 908-839-5579 or jjdoh@comcast.net or Jim Higgins at 732-864-7767.

Runners and supporters will be entertained again by the Brue Crew Band, led by John Brue., Jr. There will be pre and post race food for the runners.

“Five years ago the club decided to dedicate some of the race proceeds to help in the battle against melanoma,” observed Club President Tom Santoro, Jr. “and in each of the last five years the Club was able to donate $10,000 to help the Melanoma Research Foundation (MRF) in its battle against one of the country’s fastest growing cancers.”

Last October the club presented a check for $10,000 to Tim Turnham, Executive Director of the MRF, achieving its initial goal to donate $50,000 to fight the disease. The contribution represented a portion of the proceeds realized from last year’s 5K and Fun Run.

Melanoma can strike men and women of all ages, all races and skin types. With a one in 50 lifetime risk of developing melanoma, nearly 137,000 Americans are likely to have a positive diagnosis this year. Melanoma is the most common form of cancer for young adults 25 to 29-years-old and the second most common cancer in adolescents and young adults 15 to 29-years-old.

The Point Boro Club proudly aids St. Gregory’s Pantry; sponsors a youth water safety program; hosts a dictionary donation for each third grade student at Nellie Bennett and Ocean Road schools; and, awards fifteen (15) scholarships to local high school graduates. The Club is a primary partner with the Boro Police Department in the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program in our Point Pleasant’s elementary and middle schools and underwrites a related self-esteem poster contest.

Additionally, the club contributes to Rotary International’s goal to eradicate polio; provide clean water in underdeveloped areas of the world; and, help shelter those in disaster areas. It also supports Face of America, a program that honors the men and women who were wounded or disabled while in service to our nation and Wreaths Across America, honoring our deceased veterans.

Taking on the role of prime sponsor again, as it has for the previous eight years, is OceanFirst Bank with branches in Point Pleasant Beach and Point Pleasant Boro. Stop & Shop and All American Ford have stepped up as significant sponsor as well.

Point Pleasant’s Dave Slavinski led finishers in the 5K run last year, cruising to the finish line in a time of 17 minutes and 2 seconds. He was the initial winner of the club’s 5K in 2008. Jenna Dubrow of Jackson, a 2015 graduate of Temple University and an exercise science summer intern at Jersey Shore Medical Center, paced all female runners by recording a clocking of 17 minutes and 58 seconds. Ms. Dubrow won the 2011 and 2013 editions of this race.

Second place for the men with a time of 17 minutes and 22 seconds was John Jankowski of Point Pleasant who won this event in 2011 and 2013. Completing an all Point Pleasant Boro top three was Joseph Busichio with a time of 17 minutes and 46 seconds for third.

Victoria Pontecorvo of Staten Island grabbed second place behind Ms. Dubrow in time of 19 minutes and 24 seconds. Brick’s Kaitlyn Lipuma was third in 20 minutes and 38 seconds.

“The energetic spirit of cooperation in the past by the borough administration and its Police, Public Works and Recreation departments, our First Aid Squad, the school system, the running community, local businesses, our residents and neighbors and our Club members, points favorably to this year’s race continuing its goal to generate assistance for many charitable and community-based groups,” noted Joe Doherty, a member of the 5K committee.

More information about the Point Pleasant Boro Rotary Club’s activities can be obtained by visiting www.ptbororotary.com.