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Mostly Cloudy ‘Running for contribution, not recognition’
Rocha will run in 28th New York Marathon in honor of veterans
Alma Rocha, the newly minted principal of Freeport’s Columbus Avenue School, will run the TCS New York City Marathon on Sunday as part of a five-member United Way of Long Island team raising funds to support veterans. It will be the 28th time Rocha has run 26.2 miles on the streets of New York’s five boroughs.
Partnering with United Way, the 59-year-old Rocha said, means “running for contribution, not recognition.” She added that she would run in honor of the 100,000 veterans and military families on Long Island, and as of Wednesday, she had raised over $5,000 for the cause. United Way of Long Island set a fundraising goal of $25,000 for the team to support veterans services that include employment training, emergency financial assistance, case management support and housing development.
“New York Road Runners is honored to have United Way of Long Island joining us as an official charity partner,” said Christina Burke, vice president of runner products and strategic partnerships for NYRR, which organizes the marathon.
Rocha, who is originally from Mexico City, has lived on Long Island for 33 years and in Freeport for the past two decades, and is in her 20th year in the Freeport School District. This year she became the principal at Columbus Avenue, after nine years as the assistant principal of the Bayview Avenue School. She is working on her doctorate in education at Molloy College in Rockville Centre.
She has been running for 35 years, which, she said, is therapeutic — her break from the world. Every morning during the spring and summer months, she is up as early as 4 a.m. to hit the streets for a morning jog. On weekends she does a 24-mile run, which takes her about three hours. She may run through Shore Park, along the Belt Parkway, or from Freeport through Jones Beach.
“I just run,” she said with a laugh. “Running is my mental health — it’s just a part of me. I don’t run for competition, I run for me.”
This weekend’s United Way team effort will be the first time Rocha has run for a cause. Besides the New York City Marathon, she has taken part in more than 80 half marathons. She recalled the first time she ran the Long Island Half Marathon, and saw a veteran running with a prosthetic leg. “It was real for me to see someone with a lost arm or leg,” she said. The impact it had on me — to be able to come back to the world with crutches or wheelchairs — takes my heart. I thought, if veterans can run this, what can a regular person do?”
The answer was running for United Way. Since she announced to her colleagues, students, family members and friends that she was running the marathon in honor of veterans, she said, “Everyone has rallied around me and supported the cause.” Students have donated loose change and others have written her checks.
“Our school district is delighted to see Alma run the 2019 TCS New York City Marathon,” Superintendent Dr. Kishore Kuncham said. “Alma is passionate about giving back to veterans who served our country, and we’re proud to support her.”
