CRANFORD, NJ — What could be better than Santa? How about hundreds of Santas?
That’s exactly what happened in Nomahegan Park on Saturday, Dec. 10, when hundreds of runners dressed as Santa assembled that morning to compete. The purpose of the race? In addition to having some fun on a crisp December morning, it was an opportunity to raise money for a good cause.
“This is our second year hosting this,” said Christine Malloy, the race’s director, in an interview with Union County LocalSource on Monday, Dec. 12. “We usually focus on breast cancer charities. I’m the founder of Live Run Give. We organize events such as this. We like to bring people together. We love to bring families together outside, to run, to exercise, to have fun.”
The Cranford Santa Run may be a relatively new race, but hundreds of people turned out for it. Part of their involvement proved to be altruistic as well.
“This year, we will be donating gifts to children who have lost a parent,” said Malloy. “We’re focusing our efforts on giving gifts to families who have experienced a recent loss. Unfortunately, we’ve had quite a few who have been affected within the school districts. We find children who have been identified in the school district who need financial and emotional relief. And we feel that, for those who survive the loss of a parent, that it is especially difficult. We want to adopt at least three more families for the holiday season and bring them some gifts, some food and some cheer to ease the loss.”
For Malloy, fundraising is a family venture, something she has been involved in since childhood.
“I’ve been fundraising for a very long time,” she said. “My father was an Elk. He joined when I was 5, so I learned about volunteering through that. I found that raising money was really difficult for the average person, so our company allows us to give a lot to not-for-profits without basically having to do any work. So we’re able to harness that power.”
“For 10 years, I had been doing this three-day, 240-mile race,” Malloy continued. “They’re pretty fun, challenging yourself emotionally. I felt very obligated to help. We had 800 people at our first race.”
Another inspiration proved much more personal for Malloy.
“My best friend, Lynette, passed away from breast cancer,” she said. “She was the mom who made things happen, the responsible parent, the one who had the magic, and we feel, without her, the magic is that much harder to find. When I organized my first race, she told me I was really good at bringing people together for good causes. She said it’s pretty magical and to keep going. This run, like every run, is dedicated to her legacy.”
The magic that Malloy said was in her friend seems to be in Malloy, too, at least when it comes to raising money.
“Live Run Give is a for-profit business, but we give to charities throughout the year,” Malloy said. “We host 15 to 20 events per year throughout New Jersey, and 90 percent of them go to breast cancer charities, particularly those that focus on metastatic disease.
“We seem to be the most successful if we ask our runners to give to the charity. Our runners generally raise between $1,000 and $3,000 by themselves, although sometimes it can be as much as $5,000. We pay our expenses and we pay our staff, who help with the event. The rest goes to the charities.”
For the Cranford Santa Run, numerous people were involved to make it work. Malloy said running such an event is a process, something she has down to a science.
“There’s an admission to get in,” she said. “It starts off at $25 and goes to $40. We have to bring the police, the timers and our staff. We rent the park for the day, so there’s permit fees and then we have to pay for the police.”
In addition to her regular staff and those she has to hire, Malloy said there are always volunteers ready to help out.
“We had the Elizabeth High School girls cross-country team that came out,” she said. “Not only did they run in the event, they gave out medals. My staff helped make the event happen. They work all of my Cranford events. We did have a visit from the Grinch.
“We had children as young as 5 years old running. Our youngest runner came in at one hour, 6 minutes and 45 seconds. Our fastest runner came in at 15:49. We had about 250 runners and volunteers. We had about 275 spectators.”
Despite Malloy’s busy schedule — she also teaches at Green Hills School, a K-8 school in Greendell, Sussex County — Malloy said she is able to have races in Cranford more than once a year, much to the delight of everyone who participates.
“We do three events in Cranford,” she said. “We do pizza and cupcake runs. We’re hoping to bring some food to holiday events. Our next event in Cranford is the Cranford Pizza Run on May 21, 2023. And then we have the Vegan Cupcake Run on Aug. 27, 2023. Those two particularly go to breast cancer charities.”
Meanwhile, Malloy insisted she will keep running her races and raising money for charities.
“It’s kind of a family thing,” she said. “I like to be moving.”
Photo by David VanDeventer