On Saturday morning, April 7, a very special community event will take place on the roads of Plainview and Old Bethpage -- the 24th annual Plainview 10 Kilometer "Run for ASPIRE" -- and we are asking for your kind help to make it successful.

As in past years, this year's run will bring more than 1,000 runners and racewalkers into our community, including several of the young amputee participants from the ASPIRE program who are direct beneficiaries of the run. ASPIRE is the special program that has been established in conjunction with The Hospital for Special Surgery and Memorial Sloan Kettering to provide prosthetic devices, intensive physical therapy, and rehabilitation through athletic programs to young amputees and victims of bone cancer and traumatic amputations.

We need your cooperation to assure the safety of these guests in our community. Please, please, avoid driving your vehicle on the route of the run as the runners and racewalkers are passing by. The run will start promptly at 9 a.m. on Washington Avenue and the last participant should cross the finish line at the H. B. Mattlin Middle School by approximately 10:15 a.m.; however, most of the racecourse will be clear long before that time.

We kindly ask that you please be especially patient with the need to halt traffic at the Old Country/Round Swamp Road intersection, as the runners and racewalkers cross over Old Country Road.

We hope that as many of our neighbors as possible will be on hand along the racecourse to cheer on the runners and racewalkers, especially the amputee athletes. Once again, this is a great opportunity to show athletes from all over the country what a friendly community Plainview-Old Bethpage truly is!

Thank you very much in advance for your understanding and cooperation. If any of you have any questions about the run, please feel free to call me or our club president, Michael Polansky, at 349-7646.

Robert Windorf

Co-Race Director and

Secretary, Greater Long Island Running Club