By Clark Judge
(August 27, 2025) — Sometimes it takes a setback or unforeseen turn of events to bring a community together. But for the town of Killingworth, it was something more. Something like … blueberry pies.
For years, they’ve been the signature prize for the town’s annual four-mile road race, and they were again last weekend. But this time there was something significant about the awards. Because this time the pies weren’t donated by Robert’s Food Center, as they had been for years. With Robert’s closed, they had to be made by someone else.
And they were.
Which is where our story begins.
Typically, Robert’s donated 36 pies, a figure so high that race organizers didn’t know where to turn for help. So they took a chance and turned to members of Killingworth’s Congregational Church, which sponsors the race, and asked … no, pleaded … for assistance. They offered them pie tins. They offered them cardboard boxes. They offered them recipes to follow. Then they did what comes naturally in a church.
They prayed.
Result: Church members baked 43 pies for Saturday’s run, with one individual producing 10, two others making six each and three more donating four apiece. In short, the response was as overwhelming as it was unexpected, and it made the improbable happen. But it did more than that. It awakened a civic pride that separates Killingworth from other Connecticut towns, with the pies a symbol of what makes the community unique.
“Killingworth,” Sharon Buller Kuhn wrote in a Facebook post, “has the best volunteers in the state.”
That’s what people who lived there for decades have been telling us. But they also say that the communal spirit that characterized Killingworth oh-so-long-ago had evaporated, with few residents interested in volunteering now. Maybe, but those involved with this year’s road race would disagree. Volunteers were everywhere, starting with those who produced the pies … and the envelope, please:
- Let’s start with the Congregational Church congregation. A week prior to the race, members pledged 28 pies — a figure that, while noteworthy, was still short of the goal. Implored to close the gap, members produced another 15 in six days — with church member Derek Phelps donating two on Friday. He was the only male to bake. “”I bridged the gender gap,” he said, laughing.
- Then there was Café Laurel. When a Facebook post last week addressed the homemade pies, owner Jennifer Parkinson jumped in with a generous offer. “Tell me how we can help,” she said.
- Thirty-three sponsors and donors, including two that donated $500 apiece, contributed $5,200. One was local; the other was from a couple who moved from Killingworth to Maryland years ago.
- Per usual, Cohen’s Bagel’s was back with its giveaways. On request, it donated three dozen sesame and plain bagels — almost all of which were consumed on site.
- St. Lawrence Church was back at it, too. It allowed runners to park more than 120 cars in its lot.
- The Killingworth Ambulance Association was on site, this time with three EMTs. The KAA last year was an invaluable asset, assisting three runners who suffered from heat exhaustion.
- Dave Hammett, pastor of the Congregational Church, rang the church bell to signal the start of the race. “There’s a genuine community spirit in our church,” he said later, “that I haven’t seen to this degree in other churches I’ve served.”
- First Selectman Eric Couture not only was present to address the 170 runners prior to the race; he volunteered to help hold the finish-line, too. If you saw photos of winner Ben Szuhaj and women’s champ Kaila Lujambio breaking the tape, that’s Couture on the right.
- Killingworth’s Emma Castiglioni jumped at the chance to sing the National Anthem, as she did last year, and aced the final. “One of the best renditions I ever heard,” said Charlie Smith, a member of the race committee. If Emma’s name sounds familiar, it should. She sang the anthem at Yankee Stadium last August prior to the Cleveland-New York game.
- As he’s done for years, WTNH Channel 8 meteorologist Gil Simmons (photo above, left, with Road Race Chairman Chuck Langevin) not only plugged the race on TV but ran it again. By his estimation it’s his 12th or 13th Killingworth road run. “I parked at the library, so I could watch the runners go by,” said Smith, “and when I cheered for Gil, he broke into a wide grin. I thought he was going to stop and shake my hand.”
- Church member Anna Filosi and husband Richard parked their food truck behind the church and passed out breakfast sandwiches and parfaits afterward. They did so well that they sold out of food.
I think you get the idea.
“The thing that speaks to my mind about this,” said Phelps, “is that the spirit of volunteering is alive and well in Killingworth.”
And that’s the point. When race organizers appealed to the public for help, people responded. Granted, that’s happened in Killingworth before with the Save Deer Lake and Preservation 2020 campaigns. But those were elaborate fundraisers that lasted years, with Deer Lake donors contributing $4.75 million to buy the 253-acre property and Preservation responders paying the $450,000 necessary for renovation of a 200-year old church.
The Killingworth road race was nothing of the sort. It was part of an annual event that typically is a small-budget fundraiser. Except it wasn’t this year. It generated a record $10,000 in revenue and $7,000 in net proceeds — with all the money going to charities, including Helping Hands, Eddy Shelter in Middletown, the Shoreline Food Pantry, SOS Refugees, Heifer International and the Community Soup Kitchen.
“It’s such a good cause,” said Lujambio, who won the women’s division in 28:37.6. “That’s what I love about the local races. It’s that they’re all held for very meaningful reasons. That’s why I don’t mind paying to register to run. This is kind of my way to volunteer.”
So there you have it. A community celebration that started with a plea for pastries and ended with a thank-you from one of its competitors … and there’s a lesson there. It may take a village to solve a crisis, but it didn’t take a village in Killingworth. It took a pie.
Photos by Clark Judge
