Way to Go: Shannon Gaghan, Farmingdale

A Farmingdale lacrosse player rallied her peers to run a collective 1,381,074 yards during the month of January to help raise awareness about domestic violence.

Shannon Gaghan, a junior at Farmingdale High School, coordinated the effort as part of the One Love Foundation's "Yards for Yeardley" campaign. The movement honors Yeardley Love, a student-athlete killed by her ex-boyfriend just weeks before graduating from the University of Virginia in 2010.

To date, 87 women's college teams, nine men's teams and several high school teams — including Gaghan's Lady Dalers — have jumped on board to support the cause, Gaghan said.

"My coach thought it would be a great bonding experience for the team," Gaghan, 17, said, crediting coach Tracy Weiner. Of the campaign's importance, she said: "I feel like high schoolers should start learning about domestic violence, because it does happen in high school."

Gaghan, with help from senior Bridget Weill and sophomore Cailee Perettine, tallied the yards each week on a spreadsheet-style poster that tracked the distances run by all 75 participants during their spare time. Every mile run by a student was converted into yards, Gaghan said, and $400 was also raised through sales of One Love Foundation T-shirts.

Gaghan was a member of Farmingdale's 2013 New York State Class A Champion lacrosse team and has been recruited to play at Monmouth University in 2016. She is also a member of her school's varsity tennis team, Business Honor Society and Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA).