Bayport Charity Reaps $15K From Sayville-Bayport Run Event

The board of directors for Bayport's Better Understanding of Life in Africa (BULA) organization received a check of $15,000 last week from the Sayville Running Company at Patchogue's Blue Point Brewery.

The check was made out of the proceeds from the third annual Sayville Runing Company 10 Mile Run to the Blue Point Brewery.

Founded six years ago by Blue Point businessman Tom Fricke and his daughter Melissa, BULA remains a volunteer operated, locally run, globally active non-profit organization that is working to improve the overall life of African children living in poverty, with the focus primarily on education.  The $15,000 will help BULA safeguard the continuing education of underprivileged youngsters in Uganda. 

In only a few short years, the Sayville Running Company Run to the Blue Point Brewery has become a major community event, which attracts 1,200 plus runners to the local area, supports several local businesses, raises much needed funds for BULA, collects a large amount of canned and packaged food for needy families in the local area, and generally puts the local area on the map in a positive way.

Tom Fricke said in a press release that he greatly appreciated the involved organizations' help.

“We are incredibly grateful to the Sayville Running Company, to the Blue Point Brewery, to the Greater Long Island Running Club, to Run sponsor Airweld, to the Bayport-Blue Point Chamber of Commerce, to the Village of Patchogue, to the Suffolk County Police Department’s 5^th Precinct, and to every participant in this year’s race,” said Fricke.

“On the surface, this is a highly competitive, extremely fun road race, but to an increasing number of children it is a stepping stone towards achieving their dreams.”

Run director Ric DiVeglio said that they were thrilled with the fundraising, but conceded that improvements will be necessary to the race for next year.

"We recognize that for 2014 we need to improve the route of the Run to minimize inconvenience to local residents, and to improve advance notice of the event by lots of advance signage and by  making our pre-race mailings more," DiVeglio said. "We are committed to be good neighbors to the community at the same time as we hope to raise even more money for BULA in 2014.”