This Weekend: Annual 5K Run Honors Fallen Nanuet HS Student

On Saturday morning Nanuet High School will host its 14th annual 5K run/walk to raise money for the senior class and the Robert McKiernan Scholarship fund. The race will take place at 10 a.m. on a loop route through Nanuet’s residential and business districts. The snow day for the run is next Saturday, March 26.

Robert McKiernan was a basketball player at Nanuet High School in the mid-1990s who was killed when he was hit by a car on Route 304. That year the senior class decided to have a run in his memory and that was how the run/walk was started.

“He was just one of those special types of athletes,” said Ralph Rogo, a physical education teacher at Nanuet High School and McKiernan’s former coach who now oversees the run. “He was a hard-working kid, just a great teammate for kids around him. He was just such a great example. So well-respected by classmates and his teachers, and the kids that played sports with him.”

Today an average of 150-300 people attend the race each year, many of whom are track athletes from other schools in Rockland. Rogo said he expects athletes from Clarkstown South, Pearl River, and Tappan Zee high schools to show up to this year’s event.

The race will start and finish at Nanuet High School, with awards going to the top male and female finishers, the top three finishers in each category, and all the participants in the Fun Run for smaller children. The awards, along with refreshments, will be given out immediately following the race.

Rogo suggests that those wanting to participate should register on race day, which starts at 8 a.m. The fee is $3 for the Fun Run, $15 for students, and $25 for everyone else. The fee also includes a T-shirt for all runners except those competing in the Fun Run.

Half the money will go towards the class of 2011 to pay for the costs of the prom and the yearbook, among other things. The remaining money will go towards the Robert McKiernan Scholarship, a $2000 award that is awarded annually to a senior athlete from Nanuet High School.

“I think the biggest thing is it gets the community involved, and we keep (Robert’s) memory alive, which is not always an easy thing to do, that I can sit here 15 years later and still say that people still know him and come back and pay respects to him,” Rogo said. “This was a great thing to do by that senior class (14 years ago) to establish something like that, and it’s been great to keep it going. Each senior class has been able to keep it going. They may not have known him, but when that race is over I think they do know a little bit about him and why it’s so important.”