2022 Awards Night Recap
View from the balcony
Delayed by the Covid Omicron variant, PPTC held its annual Awards Night on April 29, 2022. The change from the usual February date to an April date was not the only change. This year, our Brooklyn club held Awards Night in Manhattan! While none of us live within walking distance (an average non-runner’s walking distance) to Stitch Bar & Blues, it is owned by PPTC member Nicholas Cohen and is easily accessible by just about every subway line. This and the draw of a fun night out with teammates no doubt accounted for the packed bar when I arrived.
I walked into Stitch and was greeted by Ruth Gursky who handed me my name tag and directed me to bag check. It was like walking into the corrals about 2 minutes to race time. The announcements had started and I all I saw were backs of heads. I could hear the announcements over the sound system and Awards Night was underway.
PPTC Signature Cocktails
PPTC President Tom Meany was on stage for the President’s Address. He made a nod to Crystal Cun who is running unopposed to be our next team president. Tom bestowed upon Crystal what he called the president’s whistle – yes, that little ear piercing whistle Tom uses to start the monthly membership meetings. Crystal accepted the whistle and gave it blow and Awards Night resumed with the presentation of the President’s Award.
This year, the President’s Award was awarded to Brenda Lee. A newer member, Brenda was recognized for her hard work volunteering for the club at its races and as a member of the Race Committee which conducts PPTC’s races (reminder: registration for PPTC’s Al Goldstein Speed Series is now open and the series bibs are back – a bonus this year is that you’ll get a medal for running all seven races of the series. Who’s joining me for the series?).
Following the presentation of the President’s Award, the captains recapped the 2021 accomplishments of the various committees of the club and thanked the members of the committees. There was a slight incongruity as the newly formed Volunteer Committee was included in the 2021 recap. But we love our volunteers, so we’ll let that pass (read about the new Volunteer Committee and Volunteer Committee Chair Danielle Fagenblat in our member spotlight). The committees recap ended with a recap of the Social Committee’s events of 2021, which started with our socially distanced pandemic driven events, like the Bake Swap and ended with the Holiday Party.
There was a break from awards as the first round of raffles was drawn. Blair Smith won a $60 gift card for Bakline; Betsy Dale won a $100 gift card towards personal training at Priority Fitness; and, Nicky Zingman won a free physical therapy session at Ascent PT.
The awards resumed with the presentation of the award for the Most Inspirational member. This year’s award was presented to Cressida Illingworth. If you attended our November general membership meeting held the day after the New York City Marathon, you would have heard Cressida’s recap of her marathon struggles and finishing in the arms of her PPTC teammates.
Next up were awards to our teammates’ extraordinary running accomplishments of our masters runners in 2021. The award of the Female Masters Runner of the Year was awarded to Junko Matsuura. The Male Masters Runner of the year was awarded to John McElroy.
Next up was the Bob Mueller Award, which is awarded to a member aged 50 or older for their contributions to the club. The recipient of this award is voted on by members of the club. This year’s nominees were: Oren Efrati, Janice Fuld, Jordin Isip, and Lisa Maya Knauer. This year’s award was presented to Oren Efrati who serves as a director on the Board, a team captain, and who can often be found leading the Saturday and Sunday group runs.
The award for Outstanding Single Contribution is another award voted on by members of the club. This year’s nominees were: Linda Chan, Evy Barnett, tom Anderson, Jennie Matz, Jennifer Bolstad, Blair Smith, Danielle Fagenblat, and Adam Wapniak. This year’s award was presented to Jennie Matz who at one time served as Secretary to PPTC and is now chair of the Race Committee.
The highest honor the club bestows for running accomplishments are those to the Runners of the Year. This year’s Female Runner of the Year is Mary Nuzzela, nee Johnston. Mary ran the 2021 New York City Marathon in a time of 2:54:45 taking the top spot in the club records for the marathon for women. This year’s Male Runner of the Year is Gerry Angelatos, AKA Seabiscuit Horseman. Gerry can often be found coming in first at the Al Goldstein Speed Series!
Next were the awards for the Ultra-Runners of the Year. Jana Veliskova was awarded Female Ultra Runner of the Year and Johann Jaeckel was awarded Male Ultra Runner of the Year.
Before the presentation of more awards, there was another round of raffle drawings. Raffles for a $300 gift card to Custom Performance Physical Therapy, a free 60 minute session at Brooklyn Athletic Massage Therapy, and a free 90-minute session at Brooklyn Athletic Massage Therapy were awarded to Janine Flasschoer, Leilani Pathak, and Minji Koo.
Back to the awards – the New Member of the Year is another award voted on by club members. This year’s nominees were: Harsha Misra, Justin Sherwood, Erin Anthony, Seabiscuit Horseman, and Koushik Dasika. The New Member of the Year award went to Erin Anthony.
Yet another award voted on by club members is the award for Best Team Supporter. This year’s nominees were: Adam Devine, Larry Balick, Will Ngo, Linda Chan, Nick Cohen, Jennie Matz, Doug Olney, Marek Stępniowski, and Janice Fuld. Will Ngo was awarded the award for Best Team Supporter.
Next up was the award for the Volunteer of the Year. This year’s award was presented to Murray Rosenblith, the warden of our beloved PPTCat. Cowbells and applause could be heard throughout Stitch as Murray came forward to receive his award.
The penultimate award of the evening and the final award voted on by members of the club is that of the Comeback Runner of the Year. This year David Coleman was awarded Comeback Runner of the Year. Later David would remark that he “just had Covid” and that others had comeback from greater challenges. If there was an award for humility, it also would have gone to David.
The final award of the evening was the Al Goldstein Generosity Award, which was awarded to Danielle Fagenblat. By now you should have read the blog spotlight on Danielle, so you should know why she was given this award.
Following the awards presentation, the winner of the election for the new PPTC mascot was announced. Drum roll, please…. the winner is Mr. Marbles! Holly Chase was presented with a handheld Mr. Marbles sign – look for Mr. Marbles (in 2D photographic form) at an upcoming PPTC event. #PPTChihuahua
If you weren’t holding a cowbell at this point, all was not lost because there was still one more round of raffle prizes! These raffles were for gift cards to Nick Cohen’s two bars Houndstooth and Stitch and for pizzas from TheZaReport, member Miriam Weiskind’s public pizza persona. Howard Abrams won the gift card to Houndstooth, Ulla Griffiths won the gift card to Stitch, and Maggie Deschamps and Ian Landau each won pizzas from TheZaReport.
Throughout the first half of the evening, servers weaved through the crowds with hors d’oeuvres. The bar remained open throughout the night with drinks pouring, including some club themed cocktails (I had a The Captain’s Cosmopolitan and William’s White Sangria). A buffet of entrees, including gluten free and vegetarian options, was available about halfway through the evening to feed the now hungry attendees. The evening would not be complete without dessert! There were two cakes – one gluten free and vegan, and some mini cheesecakes.
Way past the end of the awards presentations and the food service, members partied on. Congratulations to all of the award winners and raffle winners. Thank you to all the businesses that donated raffles to our club for Awards Night. Thank you to the captains, Lillian Park, Jimmy Leung, Jana Trenk and Oren Efrati, who worked tirelessly to plan Awards Night and were our hosts for the evening. It was an evening of celebration for our club and the team spirit was tangible. See you on the loop!
2022 Awards Night Winners
President’s Award
Brenda Lee
Most Inspirational
Cressida Illingworth
Masters Runner of the Year
Junko Matsuura (Female)
John McElroy (Male)
Bob Mueller Award
Oren Efrati
Outstanding Single Contribution
Jennie Matz
Runners of the Year
Mary Nuzzela, nee Johnston (Female)
Gerry Angelatos, AKA Seabiscuit Horseman (Male)
Ultra Runners of the Year
Jana Veliskova (Female)
Johann Jaeckel (Male)
New Member of the Year
Erin Anthony
Best Team Supporter
Will Ngo
Volunteer of the Year
Murray Rosenblith
Comeback Runner of the Year
David Coleman
Al Goldstein Generosity Award
Danielle Fagenblat
The slideshow from the award presentation can be viewed on our YouTube channel here.
Awards Night Raffle Prizes
All prizes were generously donated to the club by the person/organization listed!
*Prizes will be distributed to the winners in the form of digital registration codes/certificates.
Jana Trenk will be emailing winners this weekend with their respective codes to claim their prizes.
Priority Fitness: $100 gift card towards personal training
Winner: Betsy Dale
Custom Performance Physical Therapy:
$300 gift card to be used on any service(s) of the winners choice.
Winner: Janine Flasschoer
The ZaReport/Miriam Weiskind: 2 pizza pie packs
Winners: Maggie Deschamps, Ian Landau
Ascent Physical Therapy:
one free physical therapy appointment
Winner: Nicky Zingman
Bakline: $60 gift card
Winner: Blair Smith
Houndstooth Pub: $100 gift card
Winner: Howard Abrams
Stitch Bar & Blues: $100 gift card
Winner: Ulla Griffiths
Brooklyn Athletic Massage Therapy:
Free 90 minute Session
Winner: Minji Koo
Free 60 minute Session
Winner: Leilani Pathak
Text and photos by: Linda S. Chan (she/her)
Edited and produced by: Linda S. Chan
PPTC is a diverse and supportive team. We want to celebrate the diversity of our club and membership. We welcome and encourage everyone to share their stories with us.