'Tri-ing' for Uncle Brian

Eleven-year-old Anabelle Ciampi swam last week at Forest City Park in Wantagh in preparation for her third consecutive Deep Pond Triathlon, which will take place in Wading River on Aug. 17. Anabelle will compete in honor of her uncle, Brian Ciampi, who died of colon cancer in 2013.

Donovan Berthoud/Herald

Anabelle Ciampi riding in last year’s Deep Pond Triathlon in Wading River. She will compete in the event this year for the third time.

Courtesy the Ciampi family

Brian Ciampi, left, died in February 2013 after a long battle with colon cancer.

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Eleven-year-old Anabelle Ciampi will head into the woods on Aug. 17, when, for the third year in a row, she will take part in the Deep Pond Triathlon in the Long Island Pine Barrens in Wading River, swimming 200 meters, biking 3 miles, and running 1.3 miles. At the finish line, she will be greeted by a sea of light blue –– the color that will be worn by her family members and closest friends in honor of her late uncle Brian Ciampi, of Lynbrook, who died of colon cancer in February 2013, at age 39. Brian worked for the Department of Public Works in New Hyde Park and as a bartender at Pearsall’s Station in Lynbrook.

Anabelle, who will begin her first year at Woodland Middle School next month, raised $5,000 in her first two triathlons for Lynbrook High School’s Brian Ciampi Scholarship Fund, created in 2013, shortly after Ciampi’s death, by his family and friends. The fund awards a Lynbrook High athlete $3,400 — an amount chosen because Brian’s baseball and football number was 34.

“It’s all a part of his legacy,” said Michael Ciampi, Anabelle’s father and Brian’s brother. According to Michael, the scholarship will be awarded to “someone who embodies the characteristics my brother had as an athlete –– someone who isn’t necessarily the greatest athlete or student, but someone who’s always a team leader and exhibits strength.” Someone, he added, who would “basically take the shirt off their back for someone else.”

Brian, who graduated from Lynbrook High in 1991 and attended Farmingdale State College, was diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer in April 2011. That same year, then 8-year-old Anabelle saw a young girl on the Disney Channel competing in an event to raise money for a relative. She decided she wanted to do something similar for her uncle, to help him with his medical expenses. “My uncle had cancer at that time,” she recalled, “so I wanted to do it for him.”