Runner Raises More Than $1,100 for Pfeiffer Fund

As Hal Smolanoff was rounding the final legs of Sunday's Jimmy D 5K race, he found himself slowing down. A fellow runner saw this and came up giving him some encouragement.

"Also, towards the end of the race when I was slowing down, some guy came up behind me and said "let's go, we're almost there,'" he said.

Running the race in memory of firefighter Jim Pfeiffer, including wearing a sign on his shirt in Pfeiffer's memory, Smolanoff thought that maybe the words of encouragement were not just from the runner.

"He didn't say anything to anyone else," he said of the fellow runner. "Makes you wonder. Maybe I got a little push from up above."

Smolanoff ran the race to raise funds for the Carly Pfeiffer Memorial Fund. The fund was set up last month following the Aug. 22 death of her father. Jim Pfeiffer, a 30-year old third generation Westfield firefighter died following a freak accident at his Mountainside home.

Smolanoff raised $1,130 for the Pfeiffer Fund, which was set up by the firefighters' union for one-year old Carly Pfeiffer's educational needs. Smolanoff is a friend of FMBA President Mike Sawicki, which led him to run the race in dedication of Pfeiffer. The Jimmy D 5K was set up in memory of a Middlesex County firefighter who died.

Many of Smolanoff's donations came from members of the Westfield community, along with classmates of Pfeiffer, a 1998 graduate of Cranford High School. Pfeiffer has been saluted as a heroic firefighter who had a caring nature and was a friend to everyone he met. In 2005, Pfeiffer received national acclaim for rescuing a one-year child who was trapped in a narrow hole in Tamaques Park.

Donations to the Carly Pfeiffer Fund can be sent c/o the Firemen's Mutual Benevolent Association at 405 North Avenue West, Westfield, NJ 07090.