HOWELL — The Howell Township Education Foundation will hold its fifth annual Race to Educate 5K on May 17 at Howell Middle School South, 220 Ramtown- Greenville Road.
There will be a DJ, food and drinks. Registration for runners will be available beginning at 7:30 a.m.
Opening ceremonies will begin at 8:45 a.m. with a school mascot race and a visit from Buster, the mascot of the Lakewood BlueClaws minor league baseball team. The 5K race will begin at 9 a.m.
Howell police will provide traffic and race safety for the event.
Registration can be completed online at events.raceforum.com/events/5472, or participants can download the registration form at www.howelltownshipeducationfoundation.org/download/Raceform.pdf and mail it in to P.O. Box 579, Howell, NJ 07731 with a check made payable to the Howell Township Education Foundation.
Preregistration will be $25. Preregistrants can pick up their bib, race shirt and free bag at Howell Middle School South from 6-7 p.m. May 16.
Runners who wish to participate may also register at that time and on the day of the race. The first 400 participants to register for the run will also receive a T-shirt.
Howell Township Education Foundation board member Suzanne Veitengruber said, “Last year, we had about 225 racers. And this year, we are expecting about 400. The first year we did this, we had about 175 racers, and we are only growing.”
Veitengruber said the 2013 run had a smaller turnout due to rain, which caused the foundation to move the race from June to May this year.
“The weekend we chose in May this year works much better because it does not conflict with any other races going on in the area and even serves as a nice warm-up race for people running other races. Plus, the weather in May is much nicer for running.”
Veitengruber said the Race to Educate course travels from Howell Middle School South toward the southern border of Howell and along Arnold Avenue before ending at the Greenville School.
The race will include the awarding of the foundation’s Golden Sneaker Scepter award. The award is a $1,000 grant that is presented to the Howell school that has the highest percentage of race participants based on each school’s enrollment.
At the time of registration, participants will be asked if they are affiliated with a Howell school. Affiliation with a school can be a student attending the school, parents of a student, family members or friends of a student, or school staff members.
In addition to the Golden Sneaker Scepter award, $100 will be awarded to the male and female winners. The second-place finisher will receive $75, and the third-place finisher will receive $50.
Prior to the run, there will be a fundraiser at Capricci’s Pizzeria and Restaurant, 512 New Friendship Road, Howell.
On May 15, the restaurant will donate 15 percent of any customer’s pretax bill to the foundation for pick-up orders. From May 15-17, the restaurant will donate 20 percent of a customer’s pretax bill to the foundation for any dine-in order.
Customers who wish to donate must bring the flier that can be found on the foundation’s Facebook page with them to the restaurant.
For additional information, email [email protected].
Contact Greg Kennelty at [email protected].