Hopkinton Police Chief Joseph Bennett, shown at the start of last year’s Boston Marathon, will start one of the waves this year. PHOTO/JERRY SPAR

The starters for Waves 2-4 of the Boston Marathon include two longtime public servants and a resident who has given back to the community in countless ways. Hopkinton Police Chief Joseph Bennett will start Wave 2, recently retired Department of Public Works employee Jamie Stewart will start Wave 3, and Abbie Rosenberg, who started two charitable endeavors in Hopkinton, will start Wave 4.

The Boston Athletic Association has entrusted the Hopkinton Marathon Committee to select starters for the later waves of the Boston Marathon since introducing the wave start in 2006.

“Members of the committee nominate members of the community who have served the community, particularly service related to the Boston Marathon,” explained Dorothy Ferriter-Wallace, Hopkinton Marathon Committee chair. “This year we are thrilled that Chief Bennett, Jamie Stewart and Abbie Rosenberg have accepted our invitation to fire the starter’s pistol to send Waves 2, 3 and 4 toward Boston.”

Bennett has served on the Hopkinton Marathon Committee for many years and has been working the Marathon on Patriots’ Day for almost 30 years. The chief since 2020, Bennett started with the HPD as an officer in 1993 and has worked as a patrolman, detective, sergeant,  lieutenant and deputy chief, receiving numerous honors and awards from his own department, the state and even the FBI. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in criminal justice from Western New England College and previously worked for the police departments in Sutton and Southborough. Bennett works closely with law enforcement officials from across the state and nationwide to help ensure the safety of runners and townspeople at the start of the Boston Marathon.

Jamie Stewart retired in September 2022 after 36 years working for the town. He worked for the Department of Public Works. According to Mike Mansir, Hopkinton Highway Manager, “Jamie is a very talented mechanic, welder, fabricator, equipment operator and snowplow operator.” As a Public Works employee, Stewart took part in the many tasks the department completes before, during, and after the Boston Marathon, including sweeping streets, cleaning the Doughboy statue, barricading roads, and cleaning up the town at a legendary pace to allow roads to reopen.

Abbie Rosenberg, founder and executive director of the Hopkinton-based Mental Health Collaborative, has lived in Hopkinton for 21 years. She founded and was director for many years of Hopkinton’s second biggest race, the Sharon Timlin Memorial 5K. The Timlin event has raised more than $2 million for ALS research. Rosenberg, a founding member of the Hopkinton Running Club, has run the BAA Half Marathon. Her son, Zack Sisitsky, a Hopkinton High School graduate, will be running Boston this year.

“Zack is running for a nonprofit near and dear to our family, the Hopkinton Emergency Fund, and I know so many people running for charity, that I’m super excited to start the fourth wave,” Rosenberg shared. “Many of the charity runners that I know include those raising money for ALS research — that I know from the Timlin Event — and for Mental Health Collaborative, so I am over the moon to see them all cross the starting line.”

About Ferriter-Wallace’s invitation on behalf of the Marathon Committee,  Rosenberg stated, “I was very surprised and extremely honored! Dottie’s passion and excitement is contagious, so talking to her has made me even more excited and so grateful to have this opportunity.”