AUBURN - Illness can strike children suddenly and without warning, a fact that Vin Gleason Jr. knows all too well.
Gleason has been through numerous difficult situations with his two children. His daughter, Kaylei, 6, was born with kidney disease and was in the hospital on three different occasions during the first year of her life. Gleason said he and his wife found themselves virtually living at University Hospital in Syracuse.
Three years after Kaylei was born, Gleason's son, Braeden, 3, was born.
At first Braeden appeared to be fine, but after about two months doctors noticed that the soft spot on his skull was closed and he had a misshapen anterior fontanel and had to undergo surgery to correct the problem.
Just recently doctors told Gleason his son would no longer need anymore childhood surgeries and is doing fine.
“It is a lot to go through,” Gleason said. “But they are both strong and wonderful children that have fought hard to get where they are now.”
While going through all this, Gleason took up running and began to get involved in charity runs to help raise funds for children and families that have been through similar ordeals.
“I've always been a pretty active guy,” Gleason said. “And I wanted to do something more to help, so I decided one night to establish the Web site and this organization, The Run 4 Life, to try to be able to help out more people. I've been running a lot these last two years and I wanted to be able to use it as a way to help people.”
Gleason had been kicking around the idea of doing a long distance charity run to benefit two places close to his heart, Alyssa's Toy Box, a charity dedicated to children and families facing illness and surgery; and University Children's Hospital in Syracuse.
The idea gave birth to the first Run 4 Life All Children's Run.
Gleason set the bar pretty high for his first effort. He decided to organize a 26 mile marathon from Auburn to Syracuse, despite being told it would take as long as year to put it together.
“I wanted to do something to show how fast illness, cancer, any of these things can happen to children,” he said. “So I decided to see just how fast I could get this together and make it happen.”
Gleason spent the past several months building up doing long distance runs of as much as 20 miles to prepare for this run.
As he developed as a runner, Gleason was also inspired by a friend, Bob Murdock, an avid runner. Murdock was killed in a car accident July 19.
“I have bad knees,” Gleason said. “And I never really thought I'd be able to run like this, but I've overcome that and here I am doing this now. Bob was a friend and when I worked at Eckerds he was my UPS driver and we'd talk about running all the time and he really inspired me. In fact I saw him out running a few days before the accident. He was a real big help in getting me running.”
Murdock's accident worked to further inspire Gleason to get this marathon on the road, and runners in Saturday's marathon wore stickers on their jerseys in memory of Murdock, saying: In Memory of Bob Murdock May You Be Running In The Clouds.
Gleason was joined at the start at Cayuga Community College by one other runner, Jeremy West.
“It is a pretty intimidating distance,” Gleason said of the full 26 miles. “Other people will be joining us along the way in Marcellus and we will end right at the children's hospital. But for the first time I think we did pretty good.”
West, like Gleason, said he's very interested in helping children through his dedication to running.
“I'm 20 now, and I've been running since I was in eighth grade,” West said. “I have a niece and a nephew and I really love children and I just wanted to do something to help out and I thought this would be a great way to do that.”
Gleason hopes to make this run an annual event and keep it growing from this point forward.
“I think this is a good start,” Gleason said. “We'll take it from here and see if we can keep it growing a little bit each year from here and see if we can make this annual event and get more people out to help and support this.”
Three years after Kaylei was born, Gleason's son, Braeden, 3, was born.
At first Braeden appeared to be fine, but after about two months doctors noticed that the soft spot on his skull was closed and he had a misshapen anterior fontanel and had to undergo surgery to correct the problem.
Just recently doctors told Gleason his son would no longer need anymore childhood surgeries and is doing fine.
“It is a lot to go through,” Gleason said. “But they are both strong and wonderful children that have fought hard to get where they are now.”
While going through all this, Gleason took up running and began to get involved in charity runs to help raise funds for children and families that have been through similar ordeals.
“I've always been a pretty active guy,” Gleason said. “And I wanted to do something more to help, so I decided one night to establish the Web site and this organization, The Run 4 Life, to try to be able to help out more people. I've been running a lot these last two years and I wanted to be able to use it as a way to help people.”
Gleason had been kicking around the idea of doing a long distance charity run to benefit two places close to his heart, Alyssa's Toy Box, a charity dedicated to children and families facing illness and surgery; and University Children's Hospital in Syracuse.
The idea gave birth to the first Run 4 Life All Children's Run.
Gleason set the bar pretty high for his first effort. He decided to organize a 26 mile marathon from Auburn to Syracuse, despite being told it would take as long as year to put it together.
“I wanted to do something to show how fast illness, cancer, any of these things can happen to children,” he said. “So I decided to see just how fast I could get this together and make it happen.”
Gleason spent the past several months building up doing long distance runs of as much as 20 miles to prepare for this run.
As he developed as a runner, Gleason was also inspired by a friend, Bob Murdock, an avid runner. Murdock was killed in a car accident July 19.
“I have bad knees,” Gleason said. “And I never really thought I'd be able to run like this, but I've overcome that and here I am doing this now. Bob was a friend and when I worked at Eckerds he was my UPS driver and we'd talk about running all the time and he really inspired me. In fact I saw him out running a few days before the accident. He was a real big help in getting me running.”
Murdock's accident worked to further inspire Gleason to get this marathon on the road, and runners in Saturday's marathon wore stickers on their jerseys in memory of Murdock, saying: In Memory of Bob Murdock May You Be Running In The Clouds.
Gleason was joined at the start at Cayuga Community College by one other runner, Jeremy West.
“It is a pretty intimidating distance,” Gleason said of the full 26 miles. “Other people will be joining us along the way in Marcellus and we will end right at the children's hospital. But for the first time I think we did pretty good.”
West, like Gleason, said he's very interested in helping children through his dedication to running.
“I'm 20 now, and I've been running since I was in eighth grade,” West said. “I have a niece and a nephew and I really love children and I just wanted to do something to help out and I thought this would be a great way to do that.”
Gleason hopes to make this run an annual event and keep it growing from this point forward.
“I think this is a good start,” Gleason said. “We'll take it from here and see if we can keep it growing a little bit each year from here and see if we can make this annual event and get more people out to help and support this.”
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