News

Monday Briefing: Marines set to run from Orient to ground zero

There’s a huge Memorial Day event set to kick off Saturday in Orient that will see servicemen and women from the 3rd Battalion of the 25th Marines Regiment running from the North Fork to ground zero.

They’re running in memory of 48 fellow soldiers from the unit who were killed in Iraq, as well as for the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.

We just got the itinerary this morning. Participants will be meeting for breakfast at 6 a.m. (location to be determined) and then taking off at 8 a.m. from the Orient Point ferry property.

Running at a pace of 5 mph (or a 12-minute mile), they’re expected to hit Riverhead Town sometime between noon and 1 p.m. on Sound Avenue on their way to Route 25 in Wading River, which the runners are expected to reach at 4 p.m. From there they’re heading west through Shoreham and Rocky Point.

Anyone who wishes is invited to join the Iraq War veterans — for all of, or just a small portion of the run.

Check back at riverheadnewsreview.com for a full itinerary.

• There’s no better type of school project than what the second grade classes have been doing the last few years at Wading River Elementary.

In 2010, teachers there launched an ongoing project aimed at “breathing life,” as they say, back into the hamlet’s revered ponds.

At this weekend’s Duck Pond Day, the kids — who want to educate the public on the importance of a healthy ecosystem at the Duck Ponds — were handing out pamphlets on their findings in studying the ponds’ fragile ecosystem, and outlining how everyone could do their part to protect the ponds.

When the kids are older — and we hope the ponds are clean and healthy — the students will be able to look upon their work with pride and feel early on in life that they have a real stake in their community.

Their efforts remind me of what students have been doing at the Riverhead Charter School in lobbying for a school speed zone outside the school.

These are great projects in so many ways, as the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of America have known for decades. It’s good to see our public school systems jumping on board.

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