By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
Robbinsville celebrated its Community Day at the soccer fields Saturday, but perhaps nowhere was the spirit of this community more evident than across town that morning when hundreds gathered for the Q&A 5K Scholarship Race in memory of two Robbinsville boys whose short lives touched so many people.
Qasim Muzaffar, a 15-year-old RHS freshman nicknamed Q by his friends, and his 12-year-old brother, Ahad, died of accidental carbon monoxide poisoning during a 2010 vacation in Pakistan. The Robbinsville community that was united in grief by the tragedy gathered together for a second year in a row for the Q&A race to honor the boys’ memory and show its love and support for the Muzaffar family.
Q was a dedicated athlete who trained hard and excelled at several sports, but his passion was running. Known for his exuberant smile and larger-than-life personality, Q’s goal was to one day be a physical therapist.
Ahad, a student at the Lewis School of Princeton, was a talented artist who was famous in Robbinsville circles for his encyclopedic knowledge of local real estate prices and his penchant for attending Realtors’ neighborhood open houses.
People called the brothers Q&A because “Q had all the questions, and Ahad had all the answers,” said their Sunday school teacher, Fatima Jaffari Kahn of the Iman-a-Zamana Foundation. The joke became the inspiration for the name of the race, whose proceeds support $1,000 scholarships for two RHS seniors each year.
One scholarship is for a college-bound student who wants to study sports medicine or physical therapy, which was Q’s dream, and the other scholarship is for a special needs student who has overcome “learning differences and challenges,” like Ahad, who had Asperger’s Syndrome.
The heartwarming community response again this year for the Q&A 5-K race illustrates what makes Robbinsville special. There were 269 walkers and runners participating Saturday, and scores of residents cheered them on along the 3.1-mile route that began at RHS, continued through Foxmoor and Town Center, and then looped back to the high school track for a final sprint to the finish line.
The community’s support extended beyond the runners’ registration sheet. Hundreds of residents, business owners, teachers and students donated to the scholarship fund, raised money through faculty raffles, or took part in grassroots fundraising activities, such as “Wear Blue for Q” week at the high school. Scores of volunteers planned the event and handled race-day logistics, including dozens of high school students who did set-up and handed out water along the race route.
It was a “community” day in the truest sense of the word. And the people of Robbinsville showed that this community will always remember Ahad and Q.

