On Sunday, Aug. 22, our club will be cooperating with the Town of Oyster Bay Parks Department to stage the 17th annual Vytra-Tobay Triathlon in the hamlet of Oyster Bay and surrounding areas. The first wave of athletes will enter the harbor at Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Park for the swim at 7:30 a.m. and the last participant should cross the finish line before 11 a.m.

We understand that Long Island's oldest and most successful multisport event may well cause an inconvenience to many local residents and we apologize in advance for that. At the same time, we are trying to do everything we can to minimize the inconvenience and we welcome your suggestions as to how we can best do so.

The proceeds of the event will once again go to such important charities as the "Friends of the Bay" right here in Oyster Bay, the Long Island Alzheimer's Foundation and the Long Island Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

All of you are invited to join in the fun. More than a quarter of the participants who range in age from 8 to 80, will be from Oyster Bay, East Norwich, Bayville, Mill Neck and other local communities, so come on out and cheer your friends and neighbors on!

You are also invited to go a step further and help us out at the park as volunteers doing such things as helping with water, food or even giving out medals to the finishers. If you volunteer, you will get a free commemorative T-shirt just for helping out. Your total time commitment would be about two hours. Please call Mindy Davidson, coordinator of volunteers, at 349-7646.

Please also feel free to call us at that number with whatever questions you may have about this year's Triathlon and most definitely with any suggestions you may have as to how we can minimize the inconvenience to the community.

I look forward to seeing all Oyster Bay, East Norwich, Bayville and Mill Neck friends and neighbors on Aug. 22.