by ANDREA BOYARSKY
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Jeff Giordano loved to run. In sun or snow, rain or fog, each day the Tottenville resident would log 10 miles, becoming a fixture on the South Shore.
Yesterday, around 350 people followed in Giordano's steps during the sixth annual Jeff's Run. The 5K race is held in memory of Giordano, a firefighter with Ladder Co. 3 in Manhattan who was killed during the Sept. 11 attacks.
"It's a great day and a great race," said Giordano's wife, Marie, before the runners headed down Hylan Boulevard from the starting line at Mount Loretto in Pleasant Plains. "Right now you're about to start on a path Jeff took every day."
Race coordinators hoped to raise $10,000, which will go to the Firefighter Jeff Giordano Children's Playroom at the Cornell Burn Center in Manhattan. Giordano, who was vice president of the New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation, was instrumental in creating the playroom, which aids in the recovery and healing of children.
Giordano never saw the playroom open. But according to his friends and family, without his persistence, it may never have come to fruition.
"He supported a cause he believed in," said Billy Leahy, president of the burn center foundation. "He was always willing to give more of himself to others."
The event embodies his spirit of the community, organizers said. There was a mass for runners at 8:30 a.m. at Mount Loretto, local boy scouts manned the water station and children from local schools worked the cleanup.
"It's a celebration of a wonderful life, a wonderful hero," said Marie Giordano, noting that the couple's three children, Victoria, 17, Nick, 15, and Alexandra, 11, all competed. Victoria's shirt, she added, featured one of her husband's favorite quotes: "That's the problem with the world, people always accept less than perfect."
The top three runners were: Lawrence Schau, 17:47.2; Craig Johnson, 17:55.5, and Tommy Verderosa, 17:55.7.
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