The Ride For Life’s 3rd annual Long Island Educators Cup Golf Outing held on Columbus Day was a big success. Teacher - golfers from Nassau and Suffolk Counties played and competed for the Educators Cup. After the scores were tallied, Patchogue-Medford Congress of Teachers won the coveted Cup taking it from the 2004 winners Kings Park Teachers Association. The Trophy will be presented at the Long Island Presidents Council’s winter meeting in Montauk. The LIPC is a group of union leaders representing Long Island teacher Locals.

Rainy and chilly described the outing conditions at the beautiful Woods Course at Cherry Creek in Riverhead, yet over 100 Teachers had the fortitude to play eighteen holes of golf. Our hats go off to these troopers! They helped us increase the amount raised from last year. We cleared about $15,000.

This year we had the sponsorship of CGAA who rallied other businesses to help us with our efforts to fund the ALS Clinic at SUNY Stony Brook and Scholarships for students who have been affected by ALS. Additionally we had the attendance of Dick Iannuzzi, President of the New York State United Teachers Organization, who announced that NYSUT will be a Gold Sponsor of the 2006 Ride For Life scheduled to take place in May.

The event concluded with prizes, dinner, an auction, a slide show and a moving tribute by Mary Murphy, a PALS who retired as the Librarian at North Babylon HS. Mary's daughter, JeanEllen, read a presentation prepared by Mary who is unable to speak due to her ALS. The evening capped a great day with many participants saying they look forward to coming again.

Scholarship winners will be announced in the Spring. Watch for scholarship details posted on the web.

Mark your calendars, October 9, 2006, 4th Annual Long Island Educator’s Cup! Our thanks go to the forty Teacher Associations who lent their support to our effort.