Members of Belleville veterans organizations, Mayor Michael Melham and Lucy Del Gaudio with the check to be donated at the end of the race
BELLEVILLE, NJ — Belleville capped off a day of Veterans Day celebrations on Nov. 6 with a 5K road race throughout the town’s streets, raising $4,000 for the four veterans organizations based in the area. This year’s 5K was Belleville’s third Veterans Day race; last year’s race had to be canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On Nov. 6, 111 runners set off from the Veterans Memorial to run 3.1 miles, some preparing for their runs in the New York City Marathon the following day.
“The veteran community needs so much love,” race organizer Lucy Del Gaudio, a Belleville resident and a U.S. Army veteran, said in an interview with the Belleville Post at the event. “I’m happy with the turnout; it’s good that we’re able to give back.”
The race itself raised $3,600; the township donated another $400 to round the total up so each organization — American Legion Post 105, American Legion Post 299, Disabled American Veterans and Amvets Post 26 — can receive $1,000.
Del Gaudio served in the Army in the 1990s during Operation Desert Storm and said that she is one of the younger veterans in town. Many members of the veterans organizations are older, as younger military veterans tend not to get as involved once they return home.
“I’m a younger veteran,” she said. “They tend to be a little bit older. It’s a mostly older population, but we want to prepare our environment for those younger generations so they have a community to come back to.”
Del Gaudio is an advocate for veterans, especially for female veterans and military members who have been assaulted. She was an organizer of a ceremony held for Vanessa Guillen, an Army soldier who was killed on a base in Fort Hood, Texas, by another soldier in 2020. The Belleville veterans community, which is sizable, and the community at large, has been supportive.
“The community has been incredibly open armed,” she said. “They’ve been very kind to us, and it’s nice that they’ve embraced a Latina veteran.”
Earlier in the day, Belleville’s Veterans Day parade stepped off and wound its way around town before Riverdale Avenue was renamed in honor of Michael Donnelly, a lifelong Belleville resident and Vietnam War veteran who was a double amputee due to diabetes complications brought on by exposure to Agent Orange. Donnelly died in August.
Additionally, a Purple Heart monument was dedicated before the race’s starting gun sounded, honoring Belleville residents who were wounded or killed while serving.
“People have really responded to it, we got a lot of local support,” Mayor Michael Melham said in an interview with the Belleville Post at the event. “The veteran organizations couldn’t help us enough.”
Money was also raised for high school scholarships; Melham awards a graduating senior from Belleville High School a scholarship if they are either entering the military themselves or have a parent who is on active duty.
Warren Feldman, the owner of Signature Fitness in Belleville, was one of the day’s sponsors.
“What can you say about veterans, and police and firefighters?” Feldman said in an interview with the Belleville Post. “It’s amazing that people of all ages came out to participate. That comes from them fostering a community like this.”
According to Councilman Vinny Cozzarelli, the veterans organizations that received the race proceeds can decide what to do with it, whether it’s to keep their operations sustainable, award their own scholarships or include it in their annual budgets. The town doesn’t want to dictate what they do with the donations.
“We want to give them as much as we can,” Cozzarelli said in an interview with the Belleville Post at the event. “It’s the least we can do.”
Whatever the veterans decide to do, the money will ensure that the organizations will stick around a little while longer.
“We want to keep them alive,” Del Gaudio said. “We’re trying to change the culture of what it means to be part of a service organization.”
Photos by Amanda Valentovic
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