Fairhaven Road Race donates $21,700 to local organizations

By Beth David, Editor

The Fairhaven Father’s Day Road Race handed out checks at its annual luncheon on Sunday, 11/3/19, at the Fairhaven Senior Center. Dona­tions to 35 local organizations totalled $21,700 this year.

Race founder Allen Days told the group of volunteers, friends, family, and organization representatives that the race has donated more than $250,000 over the past 45 years.

Mr. Days thanked the volunteers, and the board, which was only created a few years ago when he decided to step back a little. The race has to cap participants now, and routinely has more than 1,000, sometimes more than 2,000. 

He also thanked the town and the various depart­ments that help make the race possible, such as the police and fire, Fairhaven Emer­gency Manage­ment Agency, and pub­lic works depart­ment. The event begins and  ends at Hastings Middle School, so the school department also got a big shout-out.

The Fairhaven EMA, fire depart­ment, and police department each received $2,000. In the past the money has been used for exercise equipment for the police department, and firefighter gear not covered by the budget for the fire department.

Fairhaven Dollars for Scholars received $1000 that will go directly for scholarships to high school seniors. 

Anne Silvia, director of the Fairhaven Council on Aging, said they would use their $1,000 donation to install a new built-in water cooler, the kind that people can use to fill up a large water bottle.  The senior center has no water cooler now, the two old-style “bubblers” have been out of order for years. 

Ms. Silvia told the Neighb News that she had priced out a water cooler, and it came to just about $1,000. But there is no money in the budget for those kinds of things, she said.

Rick Seguin accepted $500 for the Greater New Bedford Marine Corps League, and made sure to let everyone know that they should be proud of Fairhaven. He said when the Marines held their convention in town last year, he got only good reports. 

“We put on a really good convention,” said Mr. Seguin, adding that people were very impressed with the history of the town, too, and have visited again because of how friendly people around town were. “You can be very proud ot that.”

Charles K. Murphy, who is also the Selectboard chair in Fairhaven, accepted $300 for the MO LIFE food pantry. Usually, they use the annual donation to buy turkeys for Thanksgiving, but this year, he said they will need it for a regular food shipment as well. The pantry missed a shipment from the Boston Food Bank due to a clerical error very recently.

Sherry Lopes, who accepted the donation for the Dollars for Scholars program and the Curtis Lopes Scholarship Fund, named for her late brother, told the group that the family has appreciated the support over the years. It helps to keep his memory alive, she said.

She said she recognizes all the hard work involved, and how much the race has given back to the community over the years.

“It’s remarkable what you’ve done,” said Ms. Lopes. 

A full list of donations and race sponsors will be available on our website at www.NeighbNews.com.

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