Despite the cold and rain on April 6th, over 425 runners and walkers came together to run the 37th FOCA Cambridge CityRun/Walk 5k around Fresh Pond to raise money for Friends of Cambridge Athletics and the Andrea Harvey Memorial Fund. Huge congratulations to race winners and CRLS Seniors Paulino Guevera (15:26.1) and Aoife Shovlin (18:06.09). Paulino won last year and shaved 50.6 seconds off last year’s race time.
The FOCA CityRun/Walk is a community event that brings out athletes of all ages, with medals in ten age categories from 10 and under to 80 and over. Congratulations to CRLS Falcons who won their age category, students Gael Medina and Sophia Juanes Seto, and coaches Emily Litman (Track & Field) and Amory Rowe Salem (Girls Lacrosse). Powering the event is an amazing group of over 75 students and parents who volunteer at the race, becoming the essential components to making this a smooth and successful event. Particular thanks to Laura Mosman Smith and Alex Linthicum for managing the volunteers and a big shout out to the teams who stepped up to help out: Orienteering, Girls Crew, Girls Ice Hockey, Baseball, Boys Volleyball, and Softball.
We are delighted that we had 26 sponsors, 18 of whom were repeats from last year, including our Platinum Sponsor Cambridgeside Galleria and our first ever Gold Sponsor Aurion Biotech. Click here for a complete list of our amazing sponsors. Through their generosity and support we raised $18,750, all of which will go to student scholarships and to meet grant requests from CRLS athletic teams. Kudos to the sponsors who also showed up to participate in the run–Aurion Biotech, Alnylam Pharmaceutical, Bagelsaurus, Cambridge Pediatric Dental Associates, Harvard Federal Credit Union, Galluccio & Associates, John O’Neil Gibson Sotheby’s, Northwestern Mutual, and Smiles Over Cambridge.
While this is FOCA’s biggest fundraiser of the year, it is also an event that brings together the Cambridge Community in a celebration of students, parents, administrators (thanks to Track Coach Jamalh Prince and Athletic Director Tom Arria and congratulations to Cambridge Public Schools COO and former CRLS Principal Damon Smith for a great run!), and Fresh Pond. Special thanks to our official race photographer Megan George, to Vice Mayor Mark McGovern for opening the event and to Sheila and John Ryder for starting the race and giving out the medals.
This was our first run in many years where we had to deal with rain. Huge thanks to FOCA’s Board for meeting at 6:30am to set up tents so that we could try to keep everyone warm and dry. Our race could not happen without our hosts at Fresh Pond who nurture the reservation so beautifully all year long and make sure it is in top condition for our racers–thank you Vincent Falcione and the team at the Cambridge Water Department and to Ranger Tim and Ranger Omar.
Finally, our appreciation goes to our partner the Andrea Harvey Memorial Fund (AHMF), who marked their 20th anniversary with this walk. AHMF celebrates the life of CRLS graduate and East Boston High School teacher Andrea Harvey by giving out scholarships to college bound seniors. Many thanks to Shirley and Cedric Harvey, Matt Glavin, Laura Gross, Elena James, Jessica Cronin, Renee Williams and all of you who showed up to support the race.
Whether you raced or volunteered or cheered, thanks to you all for your enthusiasm and great participation! Next year’s race will be on Sunday April 12th–see you then.
