The Gail Blake Foundation is hosting the annual 5k run here in Bernardsville, NJ in honor of Gail Blake and her devotion to teaching. Mrs. Burns, organizing the event, explained that the organization is doing this annual 5k because of “the passing of Gail Blake, who worked for this district for over 30 years in special education. Her three sons also started the foundation, and this is the second year that this 5k is happening.” According to Ms. Burns, Gail Blake was “A para professional. I worked with her for 10 years and she was a very devoted teacher and good friend. She taught at the high school for 12 years.” Senior Sara Rupert also described Gail Blake as “very sweet and supportive about anything that I wanted to do. I knew her for about 2 years, ever since my freshman year.” All of the money collected from the race will be donated to the foundation.
According to Thomas Jacobs, a freshman, “there were about 90 different people overall that ran the 5k.” He also said that “the experience was nice and fun, and it’s just a benefit that all the money is directly donated to the good people of the Gail Blake foundation.” He ran the 2.6 mile-long race in a mere 17 minutes and 13 seconds. Junior Ernie Cabrera cam e in second. He described the race as “hard and physically demanding. I [finished in] little over 15 minutes. I ran it for the community service and for the fundraiser. It’s great that I placed second anyway.”
The race was overall a complete success and generated hundreds of dollars for the foundation.
