Coming Together for 18 Years
The Jeff Coombs Memorial Road Race Is Still a Strong Community Event
The Coombs Memorial Race was held on Sunday, September 15, 2019 and again featured a large American Flag like this one displayed last year on September 12, 2018.
September 23, 2019
The 18th Annual Jeff Coombs Memorial Road Race was held on Sunday, Sept. 15, 2019 at the Woodsdale Elementary School. The race is in memory of Jeff Coombs who on Sept. 11, 2001 was on a flight from Boston to California for a business meeting. Tragically the flight he was on, Flight 11, was the first plane to be hijacked and crashed into the North Tower.
Eighteen years doesn’t make it go away. It just makes you deal with it differently.
— Christie Coombs
The road race is coordinated and founded by his widow Christie Coombs, but she doesn’t do it all alone. She has the help of many, including the Abington High School football and soccer teams who set up on Saturday and Sunday. Other students from Abington Public Schools also volunteer at the race on Sunday and/or participate in running. In addition, many local businesses provide free food. Some of the businesses are Sarcastic Swine, Cream, and Dominos. Many other businesses provide gift cards or baskets to raffle off.
The activities on Sunday started with a kid’s race, a DJ, and a National Guard inflatable Boot Camp obstacle course. Then the main 5K began with many people from the community, the state, and even out of state runners and walkers participating.
The Jeff Coombs Fund website states that the race each September raises about $50,000 and that the money that is raised from the race helps families who find themselves “in suddenly difficult situations because of death or illness in the family.” The Coombs fund also provides scholarships to graduating seniors at Abington High School and funds many throughout the community.
The Jeff Coombs Foundation was founded back in November 2001, just a few months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks that claimed lives in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC. Since its founding, the Foundation has been able to raise more than $1 million through the Annual Jeff Coombs Memorial Road Race, according to their website.
If you would like to donate to the Jeff Coombs Fund or want more information on it, go to http://www.jeffcoombsfund.org/blog/make-a-donation/. Check out more pictures from the race on their facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/jeffcoombsroadrace/
