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Run Across America supports 9-11 victims
Hundreds of local residents greeted a group of Nike- sponsored runners who stopped here this week on their cross- country trek to raise money for families of those killed Sept. 11. The Chews Landing Fire Co. on Somerdale Road was one of 43 firehouses across the country where the group stopped, a different station each night since the trip began Oct. 11 on the Oregon coast. The Run Across America is sponsored by the Nike athletic apparel company along with the International Fire Chiefs Association. "Nike said it was the biggest turnout they had anywhere," said Jeff Samalonis, an avid runner and volunteer Chews Landing firefighter who helped organize the event Monday. He estimated between 300 and 400 people greeted the runners when they arrived at the firehouse about 7 p.m. Among them were the Phillie Phanatic and Philadelphia Kixx mascot Socceroo, who ran the last three miles with the Nike athletes. "That was our goal - to make it the best because it's at the end," Samalonis said. The runners finish the 3,400-mile trek today at ground zero in New York. The relay team members, mostly Nike employees, run in pairs about nine miles at a time. The group covers about 90 miles a day. Fund-raising efforts benefit the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund, the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and Concerns of Police Survivors Inc. Samalonis also worked with Edward Stahl, principal of Triton High School in Runnemede, to arrange a rousing send- off for the runners. On their way to Long Branch for the last stop before New York, the runners detoured off Evesham Road into a packed Triton gym as about 700 students roared " USA! USA!" and gave each of the 28 Nike runners a Triton High T-shirt. "I couldn't believe," Samalonis said, "how into it the kids were."
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