About Us

Meet Our Board of Directors

Danny Amat    Karen Hester   Gavin Mc Kiernan

The Long Beach Neighborhood Foundation (LBNF) was originally founded in 2008 by Long Beach residents Gavin Mc Kiernan and Danny Amat. Gavin and Danny, who met as a result of their leadership roles in the Wrigley Association, not only share a commitment to community activism, but also have a mutual interest in running. At the time Gavin had ran in events regularly including a couple marathons a year and Danny had previously worked overseeing race operations for the Los Angeles Marathon. Gavin and Danny felt that together they had the skills and experience to organize a great race event. Rather than try to organize a race in downtown Long Beach or Belmont Shore, where most such events take place, Gavin and Danny wanted to hold the race in a historically under served neighborhood of Long Beach.

By January 2008, Gavin and Danny had recruited others to join their cause, and the LBNF Board began to meet regularly. Soon, LBNF was officially established as a 501 c3 non-profit corporation. Together, the Board members developed LBNF’s mission: to organize and sponsor athletic events and programs in Long Beach that promote community involvement, education, tolerance, and a healthy non-violent lifestyle, particularly among our city’s at risk youth. The idea was to organize athletic events that would have a positive impact on the local community, in particular youth, and in turn reinvest all proceeds from those events back into programs serving at-risk youth in Long Beach.

LBNF’s flagship event, the Wrigley River Run 5K and 10K and Kids’ Tadpole Trot gets rave reviews from runners and the community at large and has earned the distinction of being the premier 5/10K in Long Beach. The event started with fewer than 200 participants but expects to grow to more than 2500 in 2016. The local business community continues to support the event, with race sponsors including Buono’s Pizzeria, Toyota, Altus Realty, Westin Long Beach, United Agencies Insurance and many others. Go to www.wrigleyriverrun.com for more on this growing event.

LBNF’s endeavors have continued to receive a tremendous amount of support from the local businesses, community leaders, and the LBNF Advisory Board which includes many city leaders and dignitaries.