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Community Corner

Huntington Helpers: Bea Hartigan Steps Up

Swim official, Townwide Fund volunteer and Red Cross first aid trainer are among the hats she wears.

Chances are, if you’ve taken a first aid or CPR course in Huntington, or a water safety or lifesaving course through the Red Cross, you’ve seen or met Bea Hartigan.

If you’re a runner who has burned off a little pre-Thanksgiving guilt or St. Patrick’s cheer, you’ve seen her handiwork in the road races sponsored by the Townwide Fund of Huntington. Ditto if you’ve participated in swim meets throughout the region.

Hartigan is active as an official with Metropolitan Swimming, the local chapter of USA Swimming. In 2008, she was inducted into the Metropolitan Swimming Hall of Fame, recognized for her years of work as a coach and administrator. Gil Smith, longtime Huntington High School and Y swim coach, introduced her that evening and works with her daughter, Meg McConnell, who is assistant Huntington varsity boys and girls swim coach.

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Hartigan has spent years officiating and also coached 8-year-olds and under at the Y for 10 years, Smith said, and is active in organizing open water swimming competitions. "Bea is the utmost volunteer you could find," he said. "When she takes something on, she's going to do it right, maybe step on a few toes along the way. She does everything by the book."

Bea also volunteers organizing races for the Townwide Fund in Huntington, and has roped Smith in to take pictures of those races. "She doesn't do it for a pat on the back. She thinks its for a good cause," he said. 

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Hartigan's work with the Red Cross isn’t anything new – she started volunteering with that group at age 14, when it was the North Suffolk Chapter and she rode her bicycle in the summer to the High Street office to help stuff envelopes and answer the phones, later working as a motor service driver and then serving as secretary to the board of directors.

Hartigan became a water safety instructor in 1960 and has taught everything from beginners to lifeguarding since then, including 10 years as a developmental coach for the Y swim team. She donates her time to teach CPR and basic first aid classes to a number of local groups, including Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, summer camp counselors at Holiday House, Red Cross disaster volunteers and others.

Giving back is part of Hartigan’s DNA. She has helped organize an open water swimming meet in Huntington Bay, the annual Fran Schnarr 5K Metropolitan Swimming Open Water Championship, held in July when the water warms up. Last year she added in three age-group contests and a 10K open race. Most who swim in the event don’t know Fran Schnarr, who died in 1991, but Hartigan fondly remembers her involvement in swim programs at the Flushing Y and throughout the area with Metro Swim. “Fran cared about kids and was the quintessential volunteer,” Hartigan says. The open water course in Huntingon Bay is challenging enough that it also has attracted marathon swimmers who are training for other events, including former long-distance swimmer Australian Shelley Taylor-Smith, who Hartigan says has participated in it three times.

Hartigan supports causes she believes in. She has been a board member of the Townwide Fund of Huntington since 1970, serving on several committees and as president for two years. She now is chairwoman for the annual runs the group sponsors, on Thanksgiving Day and around St. Patrick’s Day. Last year, she said, the St. Pat’s run cleared $7,300 for the fund and the Thanksgiving run cleared $30,000. “We had some very generous sponsors, so we were able to tell the runners their fees went directly to the fund,” she said.

The Thanksgiving race last fall attracted 1,700 runners for the 4-mile section, and the fun run has become a tradition for some families. "I see not one, not two, not three but sometimes four generations out there. They’re dressed in costume, wearing a hat or dressed like a turkey, and they’re having fun. Then they go home and have dinner guilt-free."

The runs have set expenses,  including mailing flyers to previous runners and hiring a race manager to set the course and handle timing since the race is a sanctioned U.S. Track and Field event. Last year, about 600 people finished the 4-mile St. Pat's race while 1,700 runners finished the 4-mile Thanksgiving run.

Along with her time, she also has pledged her money to fund the Hartigan Challenge, which she and her husband, Arthur, started to pump up the number of runners participating in the St. Pat's race by offering a trophy to the top high school team of five, both girls and boys.

Hartigan said she supports the Townwide Fund because the money stays in the community. "The fund has done a good job of vetting the agencies and making sure they’re worthy," she says. "They’re all part of the town that I grew up in. They're here for you, and me, and everyone else."

Hartigan sticks with the jobs she takes on. She served as Metro Swimming’s chairwoman for five years and held a number of other positions, including as the chairwoman for adapted swimming and open water swimming. At the national level, Hartigan also served on the Adapted Committee, which organizes events for swimmers with disabilities, and as coordinator for the American records for swimmers with disabilities.

She has been a race director for a number of open water swimming events, including the 2000 National 10K Championships, and she was a meet referee for the International Games for the Disabled in 1984, a precursor to today's Paralympic Games, as well as many local meets and championships.

She visited Ireland when she served as a referee for the 2003 Special Olympics there and takes pride in helping get one boy who was deaf redirected to compete in the Paralympics, which run two weeks after each Olympics in the same venues, giving athletes with physical handicaps a chance to compete. "He went on to do very well in the Paralympics," she said.

When a country bids to host the Olympics they also must bid to host the Paralympics two weeks later, using the same venues.  After all, it's only fair.

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