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Rolling Thunder running strong at Kennedy High

Student creates Nassau running program for disabled

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Mikey Brannigan, a senior at Northport High School, was diagnosed with autism when he was 18 months old. According to a recent article about him in Sports Illustrated, his parents were advised when he was 3 to get on waiting lists for group homes. The experts predicted he would end up in such a home one day.

At 7, however, Brannigan started running. That changed everything.

Brannigan, who was named the Sports Illustrated High School Athlete of the Month for February, is the defending national champion in the outdoor 3,200-meter run and one of the best high school middle-distance runners in the country. According to Sports Illustrated, he has also been sent an invitation to train for the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Jamie Kanner, a senior at Kennedy High School in Bellmore, where she is a member of the cross-country and spring track teams and a co-captain of the winter track squad, read another article detailing Brannigan’s athletic pursuits in December 2013. The piece noted that Rolling Thunder, a Suffolk County-based nonprofit organization dedicated to providing disabled people with opportunities to take part in mainstream running, walking and wheelchair racing events, helped him launch his running career.

Kanner, of Bellmore, said she knew she wanted to volunteer for such a program - but there wasn’t a Nassau County chapter. So, she created one.

“I was determined,” she said. “It is unique because it gives kids opportunities. I know I would never tell a kid, ‘You can’t.’”

The group is celebrating its first anniversary, and Kanner said she loves organizing running events for local children. In the future, she said, she will look for ways to expand the program.

Kanner didn’t always like running. She joined Kennedy’s cross-country team in her freshman year to get in better shape for softball. Now she loves running year-round.

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