On Sunday morning, September 18th, early fall weather welcomed 225+ runners, joggers, walkers and families to the 4th Annual ONSF  PLAY Strong, PLAY Safe Family 5K Run/Walk & Expo to benefit ONSF education and community outreach programs.

The race, a USATF certified 5K course, started in front of the Eastern Greenwich Civic Center and continued through scenic Old Greenwich. The event began with a pre-race warm up led again this year by Alicia Hirscht, DPT. Alicia demonstrated and coached the group of runners and walkers through safe conditioning exercises preparing them for a fun, safe race. In addition, just prior to the Kids .05 race, Anthony Scire, Performance Specialist from Elite Health Services, held a warm up for our “future athletes.”

One of the day’s highlights was the Kids Obstacle Course designed and built by Friso Van Reseema and his team from the Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich (BGCG). The course consisted of a balance beam, tunnels and a blow-up castle obstacle maze and was followed by the kid’s race around the fields of EGCC. Some of the obstacles previewed the BGCG Muddy Up Event. Kids of all ages participated and many had already completed the 5K.

The ONSF 5K Committee acknowledges the support of the many generous donors including Greenwich Hospital, CHASE, Whole Foods, Houlihan Lawrence, Granoff Architects, Camps Takajo and Tripp Lake, Fairfield County Look, Greentree Toyota Danbury, Greenwich Running Company, Elite Health Services, Fleet Feet Stamford, Murtha Cullina Attorneys, Fieldpoint Private, Town of Greenwich Department of Parks and Recreation and many others.

Thank you to the student volunteers from the Boys and Girls Club of Greenwich and Greenwich Country Day School! Their valuable assistance with manning the aid stations, helping with handing out awards and medals, cleaning up, etc., etc., contributed to the overall success of the 5K!

5K Committee – Back row – Jon Stellwagen, Casey McKee, Susan Plant, Adam Ercoli. Front row – Brenda Tananbaum, Katie Vadasdi, MD, Alicia Hirscht, DPT, Vicki Leeds Tananbaum, Angela Tammaro and Paul Sethi, MD