2024 Wrap, Thank yous, & Summer Trail Work
We are getting ready for some summer work on the John Jay Trails – initial funding will be from our successful 2024 JJTrail Race, Walk, and Dash this past April. Donation portal is open now.
JJTrail Runners, Walkers, Hikers, Volunteers, Sponsors, and Community Members,
Another school year is coming to a close!
Thank you for your continued support! We had another great race this past April with the support of our fantastic team of Student Race Directors and our Race Committee members.
I wanted to take this opportunity for big thank yous and recognition to our student race directors, race committee, and community volunteers.
Photo above: Many of the student race directors and race committee members at one of our seven organizational meetings at the Horse & Hound Inn during winter and early spring 2024.
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Congratulations to the inaugural recipients of the John Jay Trailblazer Scholarship: Ciara McGroary ’24 and Jasper Braunschweiger ’24. They will be graduating later this month and they will be missed as long time trail work volunteers and members of the Race leadership team.
Thank you also to graduating seniors and student race directors Quinn Oates ’24, Meg Winter ’24, and Chloe Jaffe ’24. They each were key reasons for the success of the past few years of JJTrail races and helped immensely with trail work on the community trail.
Thank you as well to the current student race directors: Lucas Mongiello, Emma Barniv, Ava Koch, Ainsley Graham, and Penny Wein. The race will be in good hands next year (mark your calendars: April 6th, 2025!). These student-athletes have been instrumental in finding and signing up sponsors and volunteers as well as preparing for the race and organizing the race day activities. They are ready to step up and fill some big shoes left by the departing seniors.
Last but not least – two more sets of thank yous. First to our race committee members: Debra Barniv, Sheila and Dennis McGroary, Chris and Katie Winter, Michael Graham, Mike Oates, Dave Bradford, Kristen and Mike Mongiello, and Ciorsdan Conran. And second to our community volunteers/trail workers: Mike Surdej, Jim Berenson, Tim Farrow, Samantha Kanner, Martin Viall, Kathy Lynch, Eric Foxhall, Joe Mulligan, and Greg Monteleone. Apologies to those I inadvertently omitted – the website will have an updated version of this note so send me any corrections!
SUMMER 2024 TRAIL WORK
If you are interested in helping out with Summer 2024 Trail Work on the John Jay Community Trail, visit the volunteer sign up page here: https://runsignup.com/Race/Volunteer/NY/CrossRiver/JohnJayCommunityTrailRace#54122 — then we can let you know when we are planning summer 2024 work sessions.
If you would like to help out with DONATIONS, the link to donate is here: https://runsignup.com/Race/Donate/NY/CrossRiver/JohnJayCommunityTrailRace
Thank you for your support via volunteer time and $$ donations to support the trail and team!
The donations go directly to the John Jay Cross Country / Track & Field team account of the John Jay Boosters Club — a 501(c)3 charity supporting John Jay Athletics. You will get a receipt via email.
Let us know via jjtrailrace@gmail.com if you have any questions. Visit and follow instagram.com/jjtrail for photos and announcements.
Check jjtrail.org for photos, history, race results, maps, and other Community Trail resources.
See you on the trails!
… Rob Cummings, JJTrail Volunteer Coordinator
Please check our 2024 sponsors (← click this link to see the up-to-date sponsor page on our race event site) and support them in our community.