Join the fight: Annual walkathon to honor high school teacher and adventurer lost to ALS

The annual ALS Walkathon at Northport High School continues this year, less than one month after Gretchen Manzo, a well-known high school teacher with a love of adventure, passed away from ALS.  

All proceeds from the upcoming event will be donated to ALS Ride for Life, in a continued effort to honor the lives of Manzo, David Deutsch and Chris Pendergast. Deutsch and Pendergast were also district teachers who died after battles with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease). 

The fight against ALS 
When Dickinson Avenue Elementary School teacher Chris Pendergast was diagnosed with ALS in 1993, he was told he had three years to live. He survived 27 years with the disease instead, leading marathon “rides for life” for hundreds of miles from his motorized wheelchair,  advocating for patients with ALS and raising $10 million for research, awareness and patient care via the ALS Ride for Life organization, which he founded. It was his inspiration that led Marie Kovacs, now a senior at Northport High School, to lead the annual ALS Walkathon. 

“His words touched my life and so many others in the Northport-East Northport community, so I wanted to not only raise donations and awareness for this worthy cause, but to keep his memory alive through this important yearly event held here at Northport High School,” Kovacs said.

Pendergast passed away from complications from ALS in 2020.

In 2012, Northport High School chemistry teacher David Deutsch died after an eight-year battle with ALS. His diagnosis was the inspiration for hundreds of students, faculty, and alumni to raise millions of dollars through the A Midwinter Night’s Dream charity, founded by a group of 16 determined Northport teenagers. 

The ongoing efforts of district students and residents to help fund research to fight ALS show the lasting impact teachers like Deustch, Pendergast and Manzo have – and will continue to have – on the community. 

She left with no regrets
Born in 1964 in Centerport, Manzo was the youngest of seven children. She attended Harborfields High School, and graduated from Fordham University in 1987 with a B.A. in Communications/Political Science, later earning a Master’s degree in Environmental and Occupational Safety and Health from Hunter College. After a highly successful career in the corporate world, including as a business integration manager for Honeywell, Manzo shifted gears and earned a master’s in Earth Science from Stony Brook University in 2007.

Although Manzo was highly accomplished and respected in the corporate world, there was one problem: corporate culture was just not compatible with her insatiable love of adventure, reads a eulogy shared on a website dedicated to Manzo’s life. So Manzo took the bold step to abandon her corporate career and become a teacher, landing a job at Northport High School, where she taught for over 16 years.

“A teaching job offers ample opportunity for adventure – and Gretchen and [her husband] Paul took full advantage of it. In fact, she once told me that she didn’t understand why people had ‘bucket lists’: why wait, was her philosophy,” the website’s In Memoriam section reads. 

A testament to a life well-lived, the site documents in photos Manzo’s childhood, her marriage to Paul Manzo, the birth of their son Shane, and the many adventures Manzo took as an avid mountain biker and road cyclist, or while canoeing, hiking, backpacking and even dirt biking with Paul and other friends.

Manzo was also a talented multi-instrument musician, and hosted with her husband regular jam sessions at their home on Saturday evenings.

Manzo passed away on March 20, about six weeks shy of her 60th birthday. “...How is it possible that someone so physically active and adventurous could be taken down by such a debilitating disease,” the eulogy reads. “It seems cruel, to say the least–but it is comforting to know that Gretchen left with no regrets. As she told Paul recently, ‘I did everything I wanted to do.’ Perhaps it is a lesson to all of us to live life like Gretchen did–with passion, determination, and a spirit of adventure.” 

Get involved: Help support research to fight ALS 
The 2024 ALS Walkathon at Northport High School, which includes a DJ and giveaways, will take place this Saturday, April 13, from 10am to 2pm. All proceeds will be donated to ALS Ride for Life. All interested are welcome to participate in the walkathon; money can be raised per lap or via a flat fee. Register to participate here. 

Direct donations to the Northport High School ALS Ride for Life page can be made here anytime before April 17.