Bridie Goldstein Run for Children

The Bridie Goldstein Run for Children [http://www.run-for-children.org/] is an annual five kilometer run/walk in Syosset, New York that benefits MercyFirst [http://www.mercyfirst.org/] , a non-profit, non-sectarian agency that cares for more than 3,000 abused, neglected and troubled children at over 25 sites annually [http://www.antonnews.com/syossetjerichotribune/2004/01/30/news/mets.html] .

Bridie Goldstein [http://bridiegoldstein.derrintogher.org/] , after whom the annual event is named, was born in 1945 in Derrintogher, near Ballyhaunis, in Ireland. She moved to Long Island, New York, in 1963 following a sister and a brother Patrick Gallagher, a recipient of the Navy Cross [http://www.gallagherclan.org/heroicgall.htm] . She worked as a nurse in Long Island hospitals and for home health care companies and later built a business, Total Care, Inc., which provided home health care nurses to patients on Long Island. From 1994, she worked at the Syosset campus of St. Mary's Children and Family Services (currently MercyFirst), as a nurse and as health office supervisor. She died in an accident in January 2003, and is buried at the historic Old Grace Church in Massapequa, NY [http://bridiegoldstein.derrintogher.org/remembering.html] . The run has been held annually since 2003, on Thanksgiving weekend [http://www.run-for-children.org/] .