Runners take off at the start of this year’s O’Briley Turkey Trot in Canton. More photos from the race.
CANTON – The eighth annual O’Briley 5K Turkey Trot raised nearly $13,000 from the annual road race and fun run on Thanksgiving morning in Collinsville.
Race co-founders and organizers Colin O’Brien and Mike Riley presented a donation of nearly $12,000 to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. That included a match of $5,690 from O’Brien’s employee – Bristol Myers Squibb.
O’Brien and Riley also presented donations of $500 each to the Canton Food Bank and to the Canton Dollars for Scholars.
Each year, the race donates proceeds to a worthwhile charitable organization. In the past, the race has made donations to the Lupus Foundation of America and the American Cancer Society. In the past eight years, the race has donated nearly $66,000 to charities in the greater Hartford area.
This year, Canton’s Max Sparks, a sophomore at the University of Lynchburg in Lynchburg, Virginia, won the race with a course-record time of 15:45.1 over the 3.1 mile course on the Farmington River Trail, breaking the record set two years ago by Bristol’s Spencer Johnson.
Canton High junior Julia Caputo won the women’s race with a solid 60-second win over Derby’s Genna Primeau. Caputo finished the race in 19:56.6.
Nearly 350 runners finished the race.
