By Ed Karvoski Jr., Contributing Writer
Shrewsbury – Over 1,600 registrants supported a Shrewsbury holiday tradition: Thanksgiving Day’s eighth annual Turkey Trot for the Memory to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association Mass./N.H. chapter. Most registrants braved Nov. 22’s unseasonably frigid temperatures and sub-zero wind chill to complete the five- or two-mile run/walk, beginning at and ending near the Town Common.
Speaking from the gazebo on behalf of the event committee, Jane Lizotte welcomed the runners, walkers and volunteers, and thanked them for their ongoing support. Her father, the late Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justice Francis P. O’Connor, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 1999 and passed away in 2007. This fundraiser was organized in his memory.
Daniel Mortimer, a Shrewsbury native now of Worcester, finished the five-miler first overall in 27:56. Mary Beth Cashman of Shrewsbury was the first-place female in 33:32.
A commemorative hat emblazoned with the event logo will be postal mailed to the winners of each age division. Twenty-five participants went home with freshly-baked pies won in a raffle. The event’s major sponsor was Shrewsbury Federal Credit Union.
