Garden City Turkey Trot Attracts Thousands of Runners

The 34th annual Garden City Turkey Trot, Long Island’s largest Thanksgiving day road race, had yet another record turnout this year, attracting well over 5,000 runners.

Runners from all over Long Island and beyond came to Garden City to run in the Turkey Trot, which consists of three races - a Challenger Division Race for courageous special needs athletes, a 1.4-mile Fun Run and a challenging 5-mile run. All three races start and finish in front of the historic St. Paul’s on Stewart Avenue.

Ryan McDermott (age 22, West Hempstead) won the 5-mile race and the accompanying Jim Flynn Memorial Trophy. McDermott, a standout runner at both Chaminade and Duke, won his fifth consecutive Turkey Trot with a time of 25:03.

The first female finisher was Jane Vongivorchoti, 27, of Woodside, with a time of 28:55.

The first Garden City resident finisher was Thomas Slattery, 15, who finished in 28:14 (12th overall finisher).

The Turkey Trot is a community tradition that exemplifies the best of Garden City. Hundreds of volunteers, young and old alike, come out to lend a hand and help make the race a success. Net race proceeds are donated to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

The Turkey Trot food drive resulted in hundreds of pounds of food being donated to Island Harvest to feed the hungry and several hundred race T-shirts were donated to the Wounded Warrior Project.

Thanks to the generous support of corporate sponsors, the race will net substantial sums for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Merrill Lynch's Garden City office, managed by Dominick Tomeo, is the race’s lead corporate sponsor. The entire Merrill Lynch Garden City office has shown a true commitment to support the race and its charities.

The Kenney Family Foundation (Bill and Diane Kenney) also donates very substantial sums to the race beneficiaries and, assisted by Al Vanasco, ensures that the Challenger Division athletes experience the thrill of victory each and every year.

Other major sponsors include Winthrop Radiology Associates (Dr. Orlando Ortiz), Select Sector Spiders (Dan Dolan,) National Land Tenure (Matt Miller), The Durnan Group (Matt Durnan), Rallye Auto Group (Joe Stanco), New York Spine Institute (Dr. Alexandre de Moura and Alex Garcia) Verizon (Kevin Shine), Coach Realtors (Stephanie Cullum and the whole Coach team), Tradeweb (Greg Leder), Walk Street (Robert Kloepfer), La Bottega Italian Gourmet (Giuseppe & Marisa Ruta), Wayward Media Group, LLC, and the Garden City Buffalos.

Many local businesses, led by the Nelkin Family and The Garden City Hotel, also generously support the Turkey Trot and its charities each year. Many other local businesses donate products/services including Bagelman of Garden City, Long Island Banana Corp., A&S Bagel, La Bottega and B.K. Sweeney’s Uptown Grille.

The Race Committee (race director Ken Aneser, Kevin Coffey, Bob Freeman, Chris Giarraputo, Mike Kopcak, Charlie Lee, Jim Loughlin, Ian Paisley, Bob Priest, Phil Puccio, Tim Tobin and Rob Votruba) would like to thank all the runners, volunteers, the Garden City recreation, police and fire departments, Mineola Ambulance and all those who live on the race course for their support.