Wantagh High School hosted the 2nd annual Wantagh Warrior 9/11 Memorial on Sunday, September 14th, remembering those lost from the Wantagh Community on September 11th, 2001. Before the 9/11 5K begins, every year Dr. Guzzone reads off peoples names from Wantagh to honor and remember September 11th, but as Dr. Whidmann stated in an interview, “We started to think about why we didn’t honor it in any other way.” Soon enough, changes were happening. 

In January of 2024, a request to the staff was made, which stated that they would like to honor the residents of Wantagh who died that day on a plaque somewhere. In January, there were many ambitious feelings about this new opportunity, and everyone believed that Wantagh High School should have a nice memorial. Certain things, such as cost, had to be put into thought. Mrs. Burke, a member of the social studies department, said that around her town there was an event on the weekend around 9/11 where they have a little run organized. “For a memorial of the people and their families, a balloon has the names of them put on it and gets let go,” she said that it was similar to a 5K run. Mr. Itri, who is a runner, was then asked what it takes to organize a 5K. Wantagh High School needed to raise money and have a great community thing going on for this event to take place. John Theissen, who is the founder of the ‘John Theissen’s Children Foundation’ was then called and asked if he can come in one day for Dr. Widmann, Dr. Guzzone, and Mr. Pappas to hear how he does his fun run, and get more insight. He stated that, “You need to have somebody who knows how to run a 5K”. They also learned that they needed a permit from the town, and to clear the roads. After learning all of this new information, they were given the name of a company from John called ‘Race Awesome’. The next meeting in March of 2024, a person from ‘Race Awesome’ who is experienced in this aspect came in and explained what he does as they also do the Long Island Run. Members of the committee, Widmann, and Guzzone were “able to get a sponsor, the Wantagh 6/12 association and a bunch of other communities went out and were able to get some more sponsors for us.” Dr Widmann stated. 

This year, there were 767 runners between the Fun Run which is for children eight and under, and the Main Race which is the 5K. Overall, there were over 1,000 people at the event to support. Many local businesses donated bagels, water, bananas, and gave runners who participated little gift certificates for a raffle to receive gift baskets. Dr. Widmann states that it was a dream to honor people and the 9/11 5K became a big community event. Since then, the race has been going on for two years and Wantagh High School would like to continue this tradition.