Best Buddies 5K Buddy Run all about friendships and pancakes
The third annual Best Buddies 5K Buddy Run and all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast provided by the Dewey Beach Lions Club went down without a hiccup Aug. 10 with 238 runners completing the course.
Best Buddies International is an integrated, worldwide organization founded by Anthony Kennedy Shriver in 1989. Anthony is the son of Eunice Kennedy Shriver and his uncles include John, Joe, Robert and Teddy Kennedy. His brother Tim was president of Special Olympics and visited Delaware events, and his journalist sister, Maria, was married to Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The mission is to create one-to-one friendships and support integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities
There are 1,700 middle school, high school, college and citizen chapters worldwide.
Deanna Blizzard is Sussex County’s first citizen, having teamed up with Shalanda Lawson. When Shalanda was asked “Do you like Deanna just a little?" she responded with a big smile, “I like her a whole lot.”
Coryn Cannon, going into her senior year at Cape, is head of the high school chapter and just got back from a leadership conference in Indiana.
"The conference was great, but I had to get back home; can you believe it's August and Indiana doesn’t have an ocean?” Cannon said.
The race went off fast and was won by James Gordon, 17, in 17:50. The rest of the top five were Andrew Robey, 18:39; Brad Byrnes, 18:51; Ryan Blair, 19:47; and Chris Stanley, 20:06.
The leaderboard for women saw Julie Hamilton, 15, from Chatam, N.J. first in 21:36, followed by Hollie Kenny, 21:55; Jenn Munro, 22:19; Mardiny Ung, 22:51; and Elizabeth Frattarole, 24:00.
The next races2run event at the beach is the inaugural BreastFest 5K Saturday, Aug. 16, to benefit the Tyanna Foundation. The Bottle & Cork will serve as registration and post-race awards home base.
