Tina’s Annual 5K Run/Walk Set to Step Off Saturday in P’ville

Since 2011, the popular Tina’s 5K Run/Walk in Pleasantville has attracted hundreds of runners and walkers of all ages.

This Saturday morning, Oct. 26, runners and joggers will again put their running gear to good use. The event has become a fixture on the Pleasantville calendar, along with the annual Ragamuffin Parade taking place the same day.

Last year was the first time the 5K wasn’t held, as it was canceled after a nor’easter swept through the region.

“There were serious safety issues and concerns,” said Janice Gambino. “We prefer to say that we postponed the 5K and that we’re looking forward to this year which will be our ninth annual run.”

The death of Gambino’s 17-year-old daughter, Tina, in 2004 inspired her family to create the Tina Shaina Gambino Memorial Foundation. The foundation has continued to receive unwavering community support.

In 2011, Michael Bloom, then 13, decided to honor Tina, who was his first babysitter when he was five. As part of his community service project for his Bar Mitzvah, Bloom reached out to the Gambino family to create the 5K. The collaboration between Bloom, Janice and Tony Gambino and their daughter Isabelle resulted in Tina’s 5K Run/Walk.

“That first year we saw such tremendous support,” Janice Gambino recalled. “We were thrilled the way it was received and people continue to come and enjoy it. The run stands on its own.”

Bloom is currently attending Wesleyan University and won’t be at the race, but his parents, Diana Planells-Bloom and Steven Bloom, and his sister, Rachel, have picked up the baton. The Blooms have also remained good friends with the Gambinos.

Bloom said he considered Tina a friend, despite their age difference, but it was her kindness that still resonates with him today.

“My dad and I were both runners when I was in seventh grade, and creating a 5K run wasn’t our first idea, but it was the boldest, Bloom said. “When we told the Gambinos about our crazy idea, they totally took to it. Once the race started happening, the community was so supportive.”

Since its inception, the Tina Shaina Gambino Memorial Foundation has developed programs helping teens and the community, awarding more than $154,000 in scholarships. The foundation’s Reflections Scholarship benefits two deserving college-bound Pleasantville High School students. It provides $6,978 to each student, — $1,700 per year for four years – plus an additional $178 the first year, which represents the amount of cash Tina once found in a wallet that she returned to the owner.

Scholarship recipients are also selected based upon their “integrity, optimism and never-ending smiles,” traits that described Tina.

The foundation’s Drive Smart Program connects the high school and Pleasantville police with new teen drivers, who learn safe driving habits and increase their awareness about the organ donor program. Before her death, Tina had volunteered to be an organ donor. Her organs were donated to four different people to keep them alive.

The organization also schedules visits to the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit of Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital to provide food for patients and their families and staff who find themselves away from home on Thanksgiving.

In addition, the Tina Gambino Sportsmanship Award presents $1,000 to a high school senior selected by the high school’s athletic department, as Tina was a soccer player.

“For the past few years the Pleasantville girls’ soccer teams have supported the foundation with bake sales, memorial soccer games and volunteering at the 5K, Gambino said. “It’s heartening to know people in the community have embraced the foundation’s principles.”

This year, the Pleasantville fourth-grade girls’ soccer team, part of the Westchester Youth Soccer League, will be holding a bake sale and operating a lemonade stand before the race at the high school on Saturday. Money raised by the team will benefit the foundation’s scholarship program.

A volunteer team from Love Hope Strength Foundation will be on hand to sign people up for the bone marrow registry, which requires a cheek swab. A lifesaving bone marrow donation was made in 2018 from someone who registered at Tina’s 5K in 2013, according to the Tina Shaina Gambino Memorial Foundation website.

The children’s Fun Run and a relay race around the high school track before the race had to be eliminated. Gambino said the start time of the Ragamuffin Parade was moved up to 11 a.m. and it was no longer possible to have so many events at once. Gambino is encouraging children to participate with their parents by walking or strolling the race route.

Also, the foundation opted against providing 5K t-shirts to participants. Organizers decided instead to hand out reusable tote bags in the spirit of helping the environment, Gambino said.

About 50 high school and middle school students are volunteering to help with registration and offer water and healthy snacks during the race and at the finish.

“It’s such a wonderful day for this community,” Gambino said. “The 5K is also a time for so many parents to interact with one another. Many of Tina’s friends continue to come to the 5K. Some are now married, some have children. It’s really a reunion and a way of reconnecting.”

Online registration, which is open until Oct. 23 at noon, can be completed by visiting www.zippyreg.com/online_reg/index.php?e=1244. Donations may also be made through the site. Same-day registration on Saturday is from 7:30 to 8:45 a.m., with the race beginning at 9 a.m. at Pleasantville High School, located at 60 Romer Ave. in Pleasantville.

For a map of the race route, visit www.tinagambino.org.