Triathletes raise money for kids, causes

The colorful history of Tri-ing for Kids began in Central Park in the summer of 2005. There, Doug Rabin of Brightwaters had just completed the New York City Triathlon, a long-distance swim-bike-run event that starts with a 1,500-meter-long plunge in the Hudson River and concludes with a 6.2-mile run in the park. He was savoring his achievement as he sat near the finish line, watching others complete the race.

"I saw a lot of people in purple shirts," Rabin said. "Someone said they had raised a million dollars for charity. I was blown away. I thought, 'I'd like to do something like that.' "

That purple haze provided the impetus for Rabin's fundraising team of endurance athletes, Tri-ing for Kids, which he launched in 2007 and has grown to 200 members and raised about $150,000 for Cohen Children's Medical Center (formerly Schneider Children's Hospital) in New Hyde Park.

That summer afternoon in Central Park, said Rabin, 44, was also the beginning of a personal transition, as important as the one triathletes make when they emerge from the water and hop onto a racing bike for the next leg of the race. Rabin, whose first triathlon was in 1999, redirected his energies from personal athletic goals toward helping others.

Running for a cause

In doing so, he and the other members of his Bay Shore-Brightwaters-based group epitomize a trend that has changed the face of the world of running, triathlon and endurance sports. Twenty or 30 years ago, long-distance athletes tended to be inner-driven, focused on more training miles and faster finish times. In the 1990s, as more people began running, triathlons gained popularity, and participants - a growing number of them women - began using races as fundraising vehicles. And unlike those in pledge-by-the-mile walkathons, they often joined with others to train and develop an esprit de corps around a cause.

"It's a significant change," said Stony Brook University professor Dr. Steven Jonas, author of "Triathloning for Ordinary Mortals" (W.W. Norton & Co.) and a triathlete since the early 1980s. "And it's a significantly good change."

"It's a way to take a selfish sport and a lonely one and turn it into a team and a family," said Kathy Keilitz of Bay Shore, who is on the board of trustees of the Long Island chapter of the Leukemia Society's Team in Training - the largest of the fundraising endurance sports programs and identifiable at major races by those signature purple jerseys.

Even as Rabin was impressed with Team in Training's size and success, he decided that he wanted to raise money a little differently.

"I wanted to form a grassroots team of people who did an endurance event and did it for somebody else, but with no minimum funding requirements," said Rabin.

Donations welcome

Team in Training, as do most of the major national fundraising groups, requires donations of several thousand dollars from each participant. Not everyone, said Rabin, has access to a list of corporate contacts or well-heeled friends and "a lot of people are uncomfortable with putting the arm on their friends and family for money. I wanted everybody to be able to do this."

So Rabin created a triathlon fundraising group whose members train together year-round and compete together at area races through the summer. It's more locally focused than Team in Training and has a recommended contribution of $250 per participant. But, he said, "if someone wants to donate a dollar, they're still welcome."

He said he picked the children's hospital because "I knew what a wonderful place it is."

About 50 outside groups regularly raise funds for Cohen through everything from bake sales to golf outings, according to Kevin Dwyer, chief development officer for North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System. Rabin's group was the first to propose to raise funds by swimming, biking and running, and although the group was small, Dwyer said he offered encouragement. "I told Doug I'm a firm believer in the adage that pennies make dollars," said Dwyer.

In 2008 the group raised $6,000. In 2009, $35,000. And in 2010 Tri-ing for Kids raised about $110,000, making the team one of the top money-generating groups for the hospital, according to Dwyer.

"He's done it one runner, one conversation at a time," Dwyer said.

Rabin has also done it with his neon-green Tri-ing for Kids shirts. "I remember how the Team in Training purple caught my eye," he said. "I wanted a bright color for us, too."

More info at tri-ingforkids.org.