RFH’s Scott Venacio: Running to Raise Funds & Awareness

Rumson Fair Haven Regional High School’s (RFH) Scott Venancio took a challenge, ran with a cause and won.

The RFH junior competed in earlier this month in the 3rd Annual Goggins’ 4 x 4 x 48 Challenge on March 6 and raised tens of thousands of dollars and piqued awareness for charity to boot.

The challenge is modeled after Goggins, a retired Navy Seal who, for the past few years, has embarked on an ultramarathon aimed at supporting charities across the world.

Beginning on Friday, March 4 at 8 p.m., runners from around the world joined Goggins’ campaign and began their efforts to run 4 miles every 4 hours for 48 hours. After attempting the challenge unsuccessfully last year (Venancio completed an impressive 40 of the 48 miles) and raising $5,000 for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in honor of local Rumson resident, Dr. Edwin Gangemi, Venancio was determined to finish this year.

As Venancio amped up his training and the challenge was approaching, Venancio was devastated to learn of the unexpected passing of his family friend and Fair Haven resident, Nicholas Glassman.

With the blessing of the Glassman family, he decided to dedicate his challenge to Nick and raise funds for their cause, Johnny’s Ambassadors, a non-partisan, non-profit, grass-roots alliance of individuals and organizations around the globe who educate parents and teens about the risks of today’s high-THC marijuana on adolescent brain development, mental illness, and suicide.

Venancio posted updates to his social media throughout and completed the challenge on the RFH track, under the lights at Borden Stadium on Sunday evening surrounded by more than 100 of his friends, family, and community members, joined by his best friends, Steve Glassman, Nick’s father, and his own dad, Mario Venancio, for his final two miles.

While Venancio is elated at his physical accomplishment and shared that this will go down, “as one of the most important nights of his life,” he is most excited, shocked, and humbled by the outpouring of support he received and the $14,000 he was able to raise. Besides large donations from local community members, it was the importance of the message he was able to spread and the small donations made by teenagers that meant the most to him, he said.