Community Corner

"Get the Gorilla" Getting Closer

Garden State Track Club to Host 5K for the purpose of benefiting low-income kids who are interested in running.

Runners looking for a new spin on marathons may want to consider the Garden State Track Club's upcoming fundraiser run.

That is, if they are OK with chasing a chimp.

The "Get the Gorilla 5K" will be held at 10 a.m. Nov. 13 at Buccleuch Park, to benefit Essays for Equipment, an organization that collects gently used running supplies, such as shorts, spikes, and running shoes and new sports bras and donates them to inner-city and low-income track clubs that apply via essay for the supplies.

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Garden State Track Club founder and president Chuck Schneekloth, a teacher at Maplewood High School said the idea for the collection stemmed from his eight years as a teacher in Oakland, Calif. 

The students there wanted to run, but they did not have the equipment. Schnkeekloth said would see students running in sweatpants and other inappropriate attire that did not provide the right level of comfort for distance running.

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As a result, he started putting out requests to the more than 200 runners in the club to donate running items that they may have grown out of or no longer need, resulting in "tons" of new or nearly new running shoes and spikes.

The donations benefit students in New Brunswick, where Schneekloth previously coached, and have recently been expanded out to Camden, Trenton and Newark, Schneekloth said.

Any Rutgers student who brings their running apparel to donate to the club will have their registration cost for the 5K waived.

Anyone from the public who donates a piece of running apparel to the club will have $5 knocked off the cost of their registration.

Organizers say it's a bit different from other races. For starters, there will be a runner in a gorilla costume leading the herd. Runners are awarded prizes for dressing up in costume, and a "Centipede" competition will award prize money to the first group of three runners banded together to cross the finish line.

Registration for the Get the Gorilla 5K is $20 before Nov. 1, $30 the day of the race.

For more information on the Garden State Track Club and the Get the Gorilla 5K, visit http://gardenstatetc.org.


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