Hundreds race in Healdsburg to benefit the Drew Esquivel Scholarship Fund

Emma Esquivel ran her first footrace in November 2015. It was a ?5K Turkey Trot in Healdsburg, and she ran it with her older brother, Drew, who died eight months later when an off-duty New York City policeman, who prosecutors say was drunk at the time, crashed an SUV into the 21-year-old.

Emma Esquivel, 17, one of Drew’s two younger sisters, thinks about him all the time.

“He kicked my butt,” she said Saturday, talking about that past race while standing near the finish line of another Healdsburg charity run, this one to honor her late brother.

“He was a great runner, but he hated running,” she said of the star wrestler, Eagle Scout and 2013 Healdsburg High School grad, who studied computer science at MIT after being accepted to Cornell, Princeton and Stanford, among other prestigious universities.

The Love Run, organized by the Healdsburg Running Co. and Scena Performance, raised money for the Drew Esquivel Scholarship Fund, created by friends of Drew’s father, Andy Esquivel, at the Rotary Club of Healdsburg Sunrise. The scholarships will help other students, like Drew, attend the university of their dreams.

Saturday’s race was the second put on by the Healdsburg Running Club to support the fund, and 210 runners and walkers showed up bright and early to take part.

As Emma Esquivel ran on Saturday, she wore a “Live like Drew” shirt, the sales of which also go toward the scholarship fund.

The same message is carried by friends and loved ones in places throughout the world. A Facebook page called “Celebrating Drew Esquivel” shows pictures of people wearing the “Live like Drew” shirts in far off spots such as Amsterdam, Australia and Namibia. On Saturday, pictures from the Love Run were added.

“I think (the scholarship fund) is a really great opportunity, and I love the idea because Drew never could have done what he did without the scholarship,” Emma Esquivel said. “I’m excited to see what happens with it, and I hope it really makes a difference for someone.”

Drew, who captained MIT’s wrestling team, attended the university on a full ride, the recipient of a prestigious James Family Foundation Scholarship.

Last summer, he was working as an intern at a software engineering firm in New York City and was exiting the Bedford Avenue subway stop in Brooklyn at 3 a.m. with a group of friends when an SUV driven by the off-duty police officer, Nicholas Batka, plowed into them.

Esquivel’s family was notified of his death when a family friend reached them on an annual backpacking trip in the remote Trinity Alps in Northern California.

Batka, 28 at the time, was fired by the department shortly thereafter and was charged with manslaughter and driving under the influence, among other offenses.

On Saturday, volunteers lined the race course with words from a poem about running that Drew penned back in 2009. It was found recently by his father, who owns an insurance agency and is president of a Healdsburg youth wrestling club.

“Running, running / Running when told to / Running when you are tired / Running when you are angry,” the poem starts.

The race course started at the Healdsburg Running Co. and finished at the Healdsburg Fire Department, where firefighters whipped up a breakfast of pancakes, bacon, eggs and mimosas for the crowd - the Healdsburg Firefighter Association’s “Sweetheart Breakfast.”

Brian Casmey, 31, finished the course first with a time of ?19 minutes, 15 seconds.

Casmey, an aspiring ultrarunner, ran the race with his 28-year-old wife, Anna. The Love Run was her first 5K, and they decided on it because of the scholarship fund.

“You know if we were going ?to do (a race), this is a local event,” Brian Casmey said. “It’s a local family. It’s a local foundation. We were excited to support it.”

And while an estimate wasn’t available for how much money was raised for the scholarship fund, the event was good for the firefighters, too. As a result of the coordination with the race, about 100 more people than usual showed up to eat, and the association was able to raise $4,000 - funds which go toward community classes and gifts for residents. Last year, the association gave a Healdsburg man a $3,000 hand bike, after a fall while hiking on Fitch Mountain left him partially paralyzed.

“Charity is what we really love to do the most,” said Skip Brand, founder of the Healdsburg Running Co. “(Supporting the fund) just made sense. .?.?. Plus, they’re the nicest family in the world. You would do whatever they asked.”

You can reach Staff Writer Christi Warren at 707-521-5205.?or christi.warren@pressdemocrat.com.? On Twitter @SeaWarren.