The Seneca Valley Foundation presents the Ryan Gloyer Memorial Run with Ms. Annie Mersing

Introducing the inaugural Ryan Gloyer Memorial Run. Listen as the Seneca Valley Foundation Director of Development shares details, what the event proceeds go toward and how participants can register.  This event serves to preserve the legacy of Ryan A. Gloyer - an incredible man and true patriot who made the ultimate sacrifice for our Country when he was killed in action on Nov. 3, 2016 in Afghanistan. It also hopes to bring our SV community together while recognizing ALL veterans who served.

Don't miss out on this inspiring race honoring one 

IN THIS EPISODE, WE WILL REVIEW

• What is the Ryan Gloyer Memorial Run?
• Where and when the event will take place and who can participate. 
• The mission of the Ryan Gloyer Memorial Run.
• What the event proceeds go toward?
• How can someone register for the event.

SPECIAL GUEST
Ms. Annie Mersing, Seneca Valley Foundation Director of Development

Ms. Annie Mersing earned her Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a Concentration in Management from Robert Morris University. Ms. Mersing has been in the Seneca Valley School District since 2019, first serving as the Executive Assistant to the Superintendent of Schools.  Now in the role as the Director of Development for the Seneca Valley Foundation, Ms. Mersing also serves as the District's Director of Advancement and provides assistance with securing and writing District grants.

Transcript

FULL TRANSCRIPT (with timecode)

00:00:01:27 - 00:00:40:00

Jeff Krakoff: Welcome to Voices. It's a national award-winning podcast brout to you by The Seneca Valley School District. This is Jeff Krakoff. Today, we're speaking with Annie Mersing, who is the director of advancement at Seneca Valley, School District and also the Seneca Valley Foundation Director of Development. Welcome. So we have a great event coming up soon. It's the Sergeant First Class, Ryan Gloyer Memorial Run. Can you tell us a little bit about what it's all about? Where is it takes place? When does it take place? 

 00:00:40:02 - 00:02:20:18

Annie Mersing: The Sergeant First Class, Ryan Gloyer Memorial Run is the first ever 5K held on Seneca Valley, secondary campus, and it's meant to spread community awareness of the life and legacy of Ryan Gloyer. It is being presented by Westinghouse, which was an amazing honor in the race is serves to highlight the many amazing attributes that this man had to remind students and really the entire community of Ryan's ultimate sacrifice for our country and even more importantly to preserve his legacy of being inclusive, selfless, dedicated and really a true patriot. It is scheduled to take place on Sunday, November 5 of this year and we chose this day because it's in close proximity to Ryan's anniversary of his death, which is on November 3, 2016 and it's called close proximity to Veterans Day just, you know, as a way to acknowledge that. And it also coincides with the annual assembly held at Ryan Gloyer Middle School, which is presented by some Green Berets and Ryan's father to again, preserve that legacy of Ryan. It'll begin at 9 a.m. on our secondary campus. And as you can imagine this campus, hold special meeting for the race because the middle school was named after Ryan in 2018 so we're calling on the entire Seneca, Valley School District to be a part of this day - students staff, family, alumni, business owners, babies and strollers, the baby boomers; we want there. It's an all-inclusive event and we really hope to get a great turnout and that it really brings the community together. 

 00:02:20:20 - 00:02:32:12

Jeff Krakoff: So other than raising money and paying tribute to Sergeant First Class Ryan Gloyer, what is the mission of the event? 

 00:02:35:09 - 00:04:47:27

Annie Mersing: So, I'll give you a  little backstory. It was about eight months ago when Tony Babusci who is the principal of Ryan Gloyer Middle School introduced me to Mary Beth Keeley, who was one of Ryan's dear childhood friends and just an amazing human being. She approached me about hosting an event. A 5k is something I've always wanted to host through the foundation on our campus, as well, to his kind of serendipitous that we connected. And it turns out, lots of things are happening that way, with this event to, we then took this idea to a planning committee and we tapped on Mr. Babusci we tapped on Laura Goosen, and who was a West Point grad, and a patriot and Seneca Valley parent. We asked Ryan's father and his wife, Michelle and her daughter Becca, as well as Miss Nicole, Eaton, who is a proud, Seneca Valley alum and even more proud, mother and wife of marine. So of a real strong military supporter there; we all came together and agreed that the run should be a conglomeration in essence of several things. First to introduce Ryan, to all of Seneca Valley. He was an alumni of the class of 2000 and he had really so many amazing attributes that we hope to instill in our students, and even our families. And we hope they will embody those and be inspired by these characteristics. That just made him such a great man, and those include being selfless, being dedicated, kind able to persevere through adversity. So, many great things. The list can just go on and on, and on. The second part of the mission, is the fulfillment of a promise made when our middle school was historically, renamed, the Ryan Gloyer Middle School, which was to host, an annual event that preserves his legacy. So insuring and he's never forgotten. Ryan was an athlete, he played soccer and ran track for Seneca and just a side note. He performed in several musicals and love the Performing Arts. A lot of people don't know that. Still, his physical fitness was really something he took seriously and something he was admired by his fellow soldiers for. So we felt like hosting a kind of physical activity like a 5K in his honor would be a perfect fit. 

 00:04:47:29 - 00:05:57:24

Annie Mersing: And then finally, the mission has been to present an opportunity to come together as a community as a school system, as a family to honor this man that gave the ultimate sacrifice for this country. As I said, he passed away on November 3, 2016 in support of Operation Freedom Sentinel in Afghanistan. Ryan enlisted in the Army in 2004, he joined the 82nd Airborne in 2005 and through many years of determination and intensive training, he was ultimately accepted into the special forces the training program and then became a Green Beret in 2014. So you can tell just by that what how determined he was. Then he was assigned to the special 10th, Special Forces Group, 2nd Battalion, which ended up;  he was sent to Afghanistan for the third time and that is unfortunately, when his life was taken way too soon. He was awarded the Purple Heart and the second bronze star for his heroism during that battle. And that alone deserves the recognition that this run will give him. We're really confident that Seneca Valley is going to show up and come out for it.

 00:05:57:26 - 00:06:14:18

Jeff Krakoff:  What an incredible young man he was and what an incredible event to pay tribute. So you mention you have Westinghouse is a sponsor. I imagine that helps to defray costs but what about for people that want to participate? What is the cost there? 

 00:06:15:15 - 00:06:57:12

Annie Mersing: So we are asking runners to pay a $30 registration fee. That covers a T-shirt cost as well as you know, having a race company on site. We chose a really great company. We're going to have some other cool events happening. We'll have a DJ where a student is going to sing the national anthem, the JROTC will be joining us so and you can register on the, there's a run sign up page, which is on runsignup.com. Also, you can find information on the Seneca Valley, Foundation's Facebook page. So we have an event page listed there. And also on the district's website, as usual, a lot of information is housed there. 

 00:06:57:14 - 00:07:01:00

Jeff Krakoff: Okay, so where do the proceeds from the event go toward? 

 00:07:01:21 - 00:07:52:00

Annie Mersing: So when we started this event planning, we confirmed that all proceeds would be used at the Ryan Floyer Middle School or for the Ryan Gloyer Memorial Scholarship. So any cent raise is going to go right back into RGMS. The administrators and staff over there are doing such incredible, things for their students and so funding will allow them to keep doing it. Nothing is really set in stone about the specific initiatives, but I can pretty much guarantee they're going to be around physical fitness, performing arts character-building and in really showing our students how to be a great leader and how to carry on those great attributes that Ryan had and hopefully that will inspire our 7th and 8th graders for many years to come. 

 00:07:52:02 - 00:07:59:00

Jeff Krakoff: You mentioned before, it's opened that anybody anywhere. Is there a deadline to when people need to register by? 

 00:08:01:21 - 00:08:31:27

Annie Mersing: So in order to get a T-shirt, you would have to register by October 9. So that's coming up pretty quickly. And just, as a side note, the T-shirt was created by a student in the class of 2023, her name was Ragan Ridenhour. She did an amazing job creating this really nice T-shirts and it actually depicts an image of Ryan as he was running track for Seneca Valley. So once you see it we have it on our Facebook page, check it out. It's going to be a really great T-shirt that commemorates the special day. 

 00:08:31:29 - 00:08:37:12

Jeff Krakoff: So is there any other additional information? You'd like to share about this great event? 

 00:08:37:14 - 00:09:20:03

Annie Mersing: So, I would really just like to  thank our sponsors are presenting sponsors Westinghouse. As I said our T-shirt creator Reagan Ridenhour are planning committee or mile marker sponsors and in-kind sponsors. All those are listed because they're so many to name, those are listed on our website, on the run sign up page and also on our Facebook page. Just thank the entire community for the outpouring of support for this event. And thank you to every person that is running walking either virtually or in person, both options are on the table. And for the donations that are coming in, we are just so grateful and excited to see this day become a huge success and to honor Sergeant First Class Ryan Gloyer. 

 00:09:20:06 - 00:09:32:18

Jeff Krakoff: Alright, so you mentioned to get a T-shirt, the deadline is coming up - it was October 9th,  correct? Yes, but you can still register almost up until the event time is, 

 00:09:32:21 - 00:09:48:18

Annie Mersing: Well and I had no  idea thatlots of runners that frequent 5Ks, they waituntil the last week to check out the weather, which makes sense. Hopefully, it's a beautiful sunny November 5th day but if not, you can always register virtually in and run it on a treadmill inside.

 00:09:48:21 - 00:10:10:21

Jeff Krakoff: Okay everybody, check out the website or even, you know, so you can simply Google the Run for the Ryan Gloyer Memorial Run and register, and it's going to be great event. Again, thanks for all the great information. This was Annie Mersing who is the district's director of advancement and also the Seneca, Valley Foundation Director of development. 

 00:10:10:24 - 00:10:11:21

Annie Mersing: Thanks again.