On Saturday, August 10th, over one hundred and forty participants turned out for the inaugural Jersey Boys State 5K Run + Walk presented by the Merck Veterans Employee Business Resource Group. By 9am, Veterans Park in Hamilton, NJ was crawling with runners and walkers: stretching, warming up and taking part in a pull-up challenge presented by the United States Marine Corps. The winning time and current organization record was set by ALJBS alumni, Winston Leung of West Windsor, NJ. He finished the race with a confirmed time of 18 minutes and 45 seconds. Leung finished 28 seconds ahead of second place, Philip Houseknecht of Newfield, NY. Houseknecht was first in his age group of males 30-39. James Hendershot, ALJBS Alumni and Treasurer of the New Jeresy Boys State Foundation placed first among staff with a time of 20 minutes, 44 seconds. He was also first in his age group, males 20-29. Heather Leiggi of Bryn Mawr, PA was the first place female finisher with a time of 19 minutes, 36 seconds.

Neil Proshan, 79, was the oldest racer to complete the course with a time of 41 minutes and 34 seconds. Jacob Berr, 6, was the youngest with a time of 40 minutes, 54 seconds.

The event was coordinated by the volunteer members of the Special Events Committee of the New Jersey Boys State Foundation. The Foundation, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, was established by the staff of Jersey Boys State back in 1999, and since has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for the betterment of the ALJBS program. In addition to off season events like this, the Foundation also sponsors the annual Family Day Picnic, held the last day of the ALJBS program, since 2003. In addition to monetary support for the Jersey Boys State program, the members of NJBSF also collect in-kind donations of laptops and other computing equipment to supply the ALJBS program computers for the week-long college-level seminar held each June.

"We sincerely thank the Merck Veterans Employee BRG for their Chairman-level sponsorship and donation to this wonderful event," said NJBSF Chairman Dominic F. Santillo (ALJBS Alumni, class of 1996). "As well as our Blue Level sponsors, the PJW Restaurant Group and Garden State Apparel, and all the vendors and participants for making this event such a success." John Chacko, Business Resource Group Leader, Merck Veterans Roundtable added, "Overall, this was a great event for ALJBS, Merck, and the local community and I'm very glad that we were able to work together in order to make this such a great event!"

The members of the NJBSF Special Events committee are hard at work preparing for the second annual event to be held sometime in the Summer or Fall of 2014.