Sporting A Cause

Monthly Archives: October 2018

Runners, Swimmers and Shooters

Are you a runner or a swimmer?

This weekend you will have chances to do both, and raise money for worthy causes while you’re at it.

On Saturday, three 5K’s- the Run Like a Deer in Barkhamsted, the Monster Dash in Litchfield and the Cannonball Run in Falls Village (this race starts when the cannon fires!) will raise funds for a Region 7 senior class, the NWCT YMCA and the Falls Village Volunteer Fire Dept., respectively.

And on Sunday, over 230 swimmers from nine schools are expected to converge on The Hotchkiss School pool to do laps and raise funds for the Connecticut Special Olympics swim team. Last year the event raised $13,500! This will be the 24th year that Hotchkiss teacher and swim coach Keith Moon has organized the event, and they have raised $170,000 in that time.

Oh, and if you are a shooter, the Northwest CT Rod and Gun Club in Canaan will be the place to be Sunday. The Club is in week three of their six week long run of Turkey Shoots – targets, not turkeys. The Club’s programs benefit.

So there is still plenty to do as autumn sloshes to a close, and as the seasons shift, so too do the events. Stay tuned for curling and bowling and plunges, oh my!

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Housy Soccer Women Rock

Fun and important events coming this weekend.

Saturday, October 27th at the Housatonic Valley Regional High school soccer field. The Housy alumni women will square off in a soccer match to help one of their own. Proceeds from the event will benefit Terry Roy and her daughter Nicole who suffered a catastrophic house fire last week in Lakeville, CT. The house at last report may be salvageable, but they lost all of their belongings including three dogs. Terry and Nicole both played soccer during their Housy years. $10 entry fee for alumni to play, admission to watch is free. There will be food for sale and a raffle. Come and support the very best of causes-10:00 – 11:00 am.

NOTICE: The Housy Alumni  soccer game has been postponed because of the incoming storm. Stay tuned for the new date.

 

Also over the weekend, there will be four Halloween-themed running events.

Saturday- The Fairview Hospital 14th Annual Monster Dash 5K in Great Barrington , MA.

The Vassar College Halloween 5K Fun Run, held completely on Vassar’s campus and perfect for the little ones in Poughkeepsie, NY.

Sunday- The Burlington 9th Annual 5K Run/Walk with Harvest Fest afterward in Burlington, CT.

And the 42nd Annual Kent Pumpkin Run 5 Miler with mile and 1/2 mile kids runs. This is a big one that caps out at 1,000 entries, in Kent, CT.

All for runs strongly encourage costumes!

To round out this weekend of diverse activities will be the Tour de Forest bicycle ride in Norfolk, and both a rifle match and turkey shoot at the Northwest CT Rod and Gun Club in Canaan, CT.

 

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Beautiful Places

Have you noticed how quickly time has passed by this year? Seasons seem only to last a month or so, then gone- especially autumn. Already October is half over, and leaf-viewing opportunities are fading. We’ll have to hustle if we want to capture the glory of the Tri-State’s most precious time of year.

And we have some recommendations for where to see it all. These are the beautiful places often mentioned in sportingAcause- the venues where so many walks and runs take place throughout the year. They are the parks and trails where folks can safely run and walk often without venturing onto a highway and maybe take in their surroundings as they pass by.

The White Memorial Conservation Center is one, with 40 miles of trails within 4,000 acres of woodlands, fields, rivers and wetlands in Litchfield, CT. Learn more at whitememorialcc.org.

Another is the Walkway Over the Hudson, a converted rail road trestle which spans high above the Hudson River in Poughkeepsie, NY. Dozens of walks and 5K’s are held here every year. In fact a Walk To End Alzheimer’s and a Walk To Defeat ALS will be held there this Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Take part in one and view the river vistas at the same time. Visit walkway.org for details.

The Harlem Valley Rail Trail and the tongue-twisting Ashuwillticook Rail Trail, in Millerton, NY and Cheshire, MA respectively, offer miles of paved pathways with gorgeous views. Visit hvrt.org and mass.gov/locations/ashuwillticook-rail-trail for more info.

And here are some more candidates for great autumn viewing:

Ferncliff Forest, Rhinebeck, NY,   ferncliffforest.org

Barbour Woods, Norfolk, CT

Peach Hill Park,   Poughkeepsie, NY peach-hill-park.org

Pittsfield State Forest, Pittsfield, MA mass.gov/locations/pittsfield-state-forest

Brodie Park, New Hartford, CT, town.new-hartford.ct.us/recreation-department/pages/brodie-park

Pleasant Valley Wildlife Sanctuary, Lenox, MA , massaudubon.org

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The Color of Loss

Most of the people wore strands of brightly colored beads around their necks. There were white ones and red and gold and orange and silver and green and blue and teal. Each color held specific meaning.

All of these people, nearly 500 of them, had gathered to celebrate the lives of loved ones lost to suicide, and the beads represented the nature of the their loss. White designated the loss of a child, red meant the loss of a spouse, gold a parent , orange a sibling and so on. The beads color-coded their pain.

The turnout last Saturday at Monument Mountain High School was for Out of The Darkness Walk to Prevent Suicide, one of 400 such events held around the country by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) to support survivors of suicide and work to end it.

The Walk was billed as a celebration of the lives of those who are gone by those who remain. One of the speakers addressed the seeming conflict of joy amid such pain.

“How can we feel such profound gratitude and such profound sadness at the same time?” she asked. Everyone there seemed to know. There were tears, as people stood at the microphone and explained their color “I am wearing orange because I lost my brother- my best friend”.

“I wear silver today because I lost military- a couple of them”.

“I’m wearing white because I lost my twin sons” -both of them.

Bertha, one of the event organizers, wore nearly every color- father, child and other loved ones- all lost . And she wore green to represent her own struggles with suicide.

Yes there were tears but also smiles and hugs and laughter and camaraderie. And that of course was the answer to the question- that amid that profound sadness, they could feel gratitude because they all had the support of each other- they all understood.

Suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States.

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