Team FPS raises over $10,000 in the Captain Bill Gallagher 10 Mile Island Run!

Matt Francescangeli knew he had a tough 10-mile race ahead of him on a challenging course that included running part of the way on the asphalt of Sea Isle City’s oceanfront Promenade and the rest on the hard-packed beach sand.

But he had plenty of inspiration. Throughout the race Saturday evening, he thought of his father Gino Francescangeli, who died of cancer in 2015 at the age of 62.

“It’s good to have him in mind and to help push me through,” Matt said of his father.

Matt was among more than 600 competitors who took part in the Captain Bill Gallagher 10 Mile Island Run, a 51-year tradition that has grown from a tiny race that originally allowed only Sea Isle’s lifeguards to compete in it to one of the Jersey Shore’s top draws for the running community.

The race maintains a close association with the For Pete’s Sake Cancer Respite Foundation, an organization dedicated to providing vacations to cancer patients and their families. The organization was founded by Marci Schankweiler and her late first husband, Peter R. Bossow Jr., a former Sea Isle lifeguard who died of cancer in 1999. Read more here.