Gengras/USJ Spring Festival 2026 Closing Remarks
It is with much gratitude that we send this Gengras/USJ Spring Festival 2026 summary message to the entire USJ community. For the fourth consecutive year, the Gengras Center has co-hosted this event with USJ’s FYSII Section 06 spring course. This fortuitous collaboration has expanded our access to the USJ family and added exponentially to the event’s attendance, energy, and offerings. Since its inception 11 years ago, the Gengras Marathon has brought people together in celebration and common cause. For four amazing years now, the “people” of the Spring Festival have been the entire USJ Community. It is a true blessing to send this summary tribute message to all members of the USJ family.
This year’s totals are once again inspirational. We completed an amazing 4,235 laps, which translates into 1058 miles and 40.5 marathons. For the second straight year, each lap completed translated into $1 to be shared among our three non-profit partners (Dog Star Rescue, Hands-on-Hartford & the Gengras Center). Along with t-shirt sales, concession sales, and very generous donations from USJ family members, the 4,235 laps raised $7,223 for equal distribution among each of our three non-profit partners. In addition to monies raised, Hands-on-Hartford received 270 pounds of lightweight foodstuffs and Dog Star Rescue received a new dog cage, 400 pee pads, three 15-pound bags of dog food, 4 bags of dog treats, three handmade pull-toys, and two bags of goodies. All three partners will make very purposeful use of the funds and items donated.
While the financial supports matter, the true Spring Festival purpose is to bring every classroom and department under the USJ aegis together to share quality time and celebrate our beautiful diversity. It is in these respects that this year’s Festival was most successful! Alumni and current students, student-athletes, faculty, and staff from the Gengras Center, USJ, and the School for Young Children came out for the Spring Festival in greater numbers than ever. Together we lapped the track; enjoyed snacks; played activities and games; shared conversations and laughs; dunked very brave professors, coaches, athletes, teachers, and students; met new people and further developed existing friendships. Most of all, we continued to create more fertile ground for even deeper, more meaningful connections and future educational opportunities.
As the Spring Festival continues to grow, so too grows the number of folks to thank. We send our sincerest thanks to the always-reliable crews from Facilities and Public Safety; the teachers and students of the School for Young Children; the teachers and students of the Gengras Center; the professors and students of USJ; all SYC, Gengras, USJ administrators and administrative departments; therapy dog Jake and his handler Laurie; our friends from Hands-on-Hartford and Dog Star Rescue; Madbounce LLC. for their very generous dunk tank donation and amazing professionalism – as well as the aforementioned intrepid dunkees; and, of course, all related friends and family members. If we failed to recognize anyone here or below, please accept our sincerest apologies! Together we all made the Gengras/USJ Spring Festival 2026 another huge success!
Please see below for this year’s stats. A final congratulations and sincere THANK YOU to the entire USJ Family for making the 2026 Gengras/USJ Spring Festival a true campus-wide event. See you next year!
Gratefully,
The C114 Teachers and the Gengras Spring Festival Committee
FYSII, Section 06
SPRING FESTIVAL 2026 MARATHON LAP TOTALS
- $7,223 (divided between Gengras, Hands-on-Hartford, and Dog Star Rescue)
- 270 pounds of food donated to Hands-on-Hartford
- A dog cage, 400 pee pads, three bags of food, 4 bags of treats, three pull-toys, and two bags of goodies to Dog Star Rescue.
Below are the individuals, classrooms, teams, groups, and departments who registered laps. Please know we are very grateful for EVERYONE who walked: every lap counts, every dollar makes a real difference!
- Most Individual Laps: Overall
- Angela Zaffetti (Gengras): 125 laps (1 full marathon)
- Most Individual Laps: USJ
- Most Classroom Laps: Gengras Division
- A9: 408 laps
- Most Individual Laps: Gengras Student
- Jimmy C. (C214): 41 laps
- Marathon Team Totals:
- Education Department: 391 Laps
- Biology Department: 297 Laps
- Men’s Baseball: 286 Laps
- Men’s Lacrosse: 262 Laps
- Women’s Lacrosse: 113 Laps
- Women’s Soccer: 95 Laps
- Women’s Volleyball: 81 Laps
- Exercise Science Class: 64 Laps
- Office of Institutional Effectiveness: 58 Laps
- Facilities: 54 Laps
- And thanks to the following individuals and entities whose laps added much to our impressive lap total:
- Nursing
- Public Health
- CT Psych Consulting Services
- Provost
- Pharmacy
- USJ Swim Team
- Get in the Game FYS
- Destigmatizing Disability FYI
- Women’s Basketball Team
- Women’s Softball Team
- USJ Athletics Apartment
- Student Financial Services
- Men’s Soccer
- USJ Administration
- USJ Business Department
- USJ Student Life
- Women’s Field Hockey
- Criminal Justice Department