LYNN — The family that runs together stays together.
That’s how it is for the Dunnigans of Lynn. Father and son will be running the U.S. Marine Corps Marathon Oct. 28 in the Washington, D.C. area — a 26.3-mile run that will raise money to benefit the New England Center and Home for Veterans in Boston.
Glenn Dunnigan, a Lynn Police officer, is a veteran marathon runner who did the MCM in 2002. His son, Cullen, a 2015 graduate of St. John’s Prep and a political science major at Salem State, ran the race as a senior in high school. Both had a desire to do it again.
Both arrived at running independent of each other (though Cullen will admit that watching his father for his entire life run and work out helped him go in that direction).
Glenn, a longtime member of both the Lynn and Peabody YMCAs, had a group of mentors, including former Classical football star Joe Pennucci and multiple runner Gerry Powers, both of Lynn.
“Gerry is a legend,” said Glenn Dunnigan, “and I ran my first Boston Marathon with Joe.”
He eventually joined the Boston Police Runners Club and from then until now, he’s either run the Boston Marathon or worked behind the scenes.
“We’d pick people up at the finish line and drive them back to the club,” he said, “or we’d assist officers, some of them who’d come in from all over the world to run. It was a nice way to meet people and it was for a good cause. These guys have raised a ton of money for Cops for Kids with Cancer.”
His son was a die-hard baseball fan and player all through his first two years at St. John’s. Then he hurt his shoulder and was left off the team as a junior.
“I took up water polo,” he said. “But I knew I wanted to do something to get my body in better shape so I started running.
“I never ran anything meaningful up at The Prep because of the water polo, but when I was a senior I decided to run the MCM with the U.S. Navy Memorial Team. My grandfather was in the Navy, at Pearl Harbor.”
Fast forward to the present. The Dunnigans were sitting around one evening earlier this year and decided they’d run the race together. They applied under the banner of the New England Center and Home for Veterans, which serves people coming back from war, providing them with various forms of counseling (including career) and provides paths to find housing if needed.
“It’s a multi-service center that teaches job skills, and can provide education scholarships,” Glenn Dunnigan said.
Military service is something Cullen Dunnigan is strongly considering.
“I know that I want to serve my country,” he said.
This isn’t just any kind of father-son bonding experience, though. The Dunnigans will compete against each other.
“I hope my time’s better than his,” Cullen Dunnigan said. ‘When I started running, he’d always be telling me ‘you have to top this time’ and things like that. So yeah, we’ll compete. Hopefully, I’ll beat him.”
The Dunnigans will hold a fundraiser Friday at the Hibernian Hall in Lynn from 7 to 10 p.m. There will be a raffle, and commemorative T-shirts designed by Harrington Trophy will be sold for $20. All proceeds will go to the NECHV. The Dunnigans would also like to recognize Lynn funeral director David J. Solimine for his longtime service to the veterans, Glenn said.
