Scognamiglio 5K Walk/Run Set for Mother's Day

Before she got started, Megan Quail discussed her fundraising compaign for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society with a group including Barbara Galvano, whose son Francesco was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in 2011.

Though Francesco Galvano just returned to school this fall after missing an entire year while he underwent treatment, he and older brothers Vincenzo and Giovanni felt the impact of 16-year-old Pearl River High School student Tommy Scognamiglio's passing from cancer in October. 

"We were talking about events we're going to do and Francesco mom said the boys had been talking about doing something for Tommy," Quail said. "She said she knew I was (raising money) in honor of Joe (Pennisi) and Francesco, but they boys had been talking about it a lot.

"That's so Francesco, though. Even when he was in the hospital and he was sick, he would say he feels bad for other kids in the hospital. He would feel so terrible for everybody else."

That discussion led Quail to organize the Tommy Scognamiglio 5K Walk/Run Sunday, May 12 at 9:30 a.m. at Pearl River High School. Registration begins at 8 a.m. She said she spoke to Scognamiglio's parents and they said Mother's Day would be perfect.

"We wanted to do something big and be able to get everyone involved," Quail said. "It was an opportunity to involve everyobody affected by cancer.

"I spoke with the Scognamiglios before I set the date to see if they wanted to do it. They were so excited, so awesome with everything. So on board. They suggested Mother's Day because everyone is around."

Quail said she wants the event to be an opportunity to draw people touched by cancer together. 

"I didn't know Tommy, but I know his brother Pat. Francesco didn't know Tommy, but I remember how it is in high school. It's all so connected in such a small school," Quail said. "They all saw Missy (Tommy's sister). It hit home to them because they had been through so much this past year. Everybody knew Missy or Pat or (their sister) Christa and felt their loss.

"Everyone in our town has been afffected in some way, lost some one or known someone who had cancer. I thought it would be a good opportunity not just to remember Tommy, but to honor all those affected."

The connections cancer can create helped spread the word of the event. Janice, Matthew and Annie Lenihan circulated an email about the 5K. John Lenihan died in 2011 after an 11-year battle with multiple myeloma. 

There will be another event in Scognamiglio's name this month. Pearl River High School students organized a volley tennis tournament to benefit the Thomas Scognamiglio Memorial Scholarship Fund May 19 on the Pearl River High School tennis courts.