I’m running Philadelphia this weekend, and I’m doing it to help a charity there, so I figured it would be great to run a guest blog from the founder of that charity. It’s a cause that hits close to home for me and I’m glad to be helping.

Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here before, I’m a father of three and a marathon runner. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic and I’m attempting to run 61 marathons this year to raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m on track and through 54 of the 61.

Philadelphia is marathon No. 55 of the year, but it almost didn’t happen for me. I book my travel and race registrations fairly late in the process. I never know my schedule, so I don’t book my airfare until I’m certain of when I need to be where. At the same time, though, I don’t book a race until I have the airfare. I have to make sure I have both ends covered.

When it came time for me to lock down this race, it was sold out. I contacted the race staff and explained to them my situation — they usually hold some entries for special-circumstance exceptions, and I typically make it through that way. But I had no luck with Philadelphia. There are people I had been planning on meeting up with there, so I was pretty bummed. I wanted to find a way in.

I looked through the charity partners and found one that stood out to me — the Hearts and Smiles Foundation, which is an organization that helps the siblings of special-needs kids in low-income families. It’s pretty easy for me to relate to this — two of my kids are siblings of a special-needs child. We’re not a low-income family, but Jack’s needs make things pretty tough at times for Benjamin and Ava. There’s things we can’t do as a family and there’s things they miss out on. The siblings are the forgotten ones in these challenging situations, and I can only imagine what it’s like for those kids in low-income families.

Hearts and Smiles seemed like a great charity to partner with, so I contacted the founder, Melissa Scarcelli, and asked her if she had room for another runner. She did, and now I’m ready to run Philadelphia this weekend. I asked Melissa to write a guest blog about her organization for today, so with that, here’s a little bit about Hearts and Smiles, in her words.

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I founded the Hearts and Smiles Foundation almost 5 years ago, after my third child was born with severe heart defects. She spent a great deal of time in the hospital during her first year of life. When she was home, she endured a lot of therapies and doctors appointments. She had a feeding tube and an oxygen tank for breathing support. Her schedule included medications and tube feedings around the clock. Through all of this, my 3- and 5-year-old sons were forced to watch their sister get all of their parents’ time and attention. She received cards and gifts and visitors; they had to spend time with a babysitter while we tended to her every need.

I was fortunate to have a tremendous support network of friends and family to help us through those difficult days. We all made a conscious effort to give the boys special attention and time away from their sick sibling. I saw many families at the hospital who were not so fortunate. I saw mothers who were so poor they could not take their sick babies to the homeless shelter with them. I saw siblings who had to spend hours at the hospital with their parents because they had nowhere else to go.

I learned that it is not only the sick child who suffers as a result of illness or injury. It is very easy to feel sympathy for a child who is sick. But we must not forget about the healthy children who are equally as important and as deserving of our love and affection.

I started Hearts and Smiles because I wanted to help. I knew the feeling of powerlessness that comes with having a sick child. I wanted to help other mothers with the material things they needed so they could focus more attention on both the sick and the healthy children in their families.

Our programs have helped families all over the Philadelphia area. We do not have an income threshold or a specific diagnosis that qualifies a family for our help. We work with social workers and case managers at area hospitals and agencies, who refer families to us when those families really need our help. In our short existence, we have helped more than 2,100 children in many different ways. We provided acting lessons for the teenage sister of a child with cerebral palsy. We provided clothing and toys for countless families suffering through various disorders. We sponsored a birthday party for the sibling of an autistic child. We provided a grant so that the brothers and sisters of transplant recipients could attend a week of summer camp. We have purchased beds, diapers, cribs, strollers, soccer lessons, air conditioners, Christmas gifts, and laptop computers. The list is endless. We even helped defray the cost of a handicapped-access ramp. Each case is treated individually; each family is helped in the way it is needed most.

Sometimes our assistance seems so insignificant considering the family’s dire circumstances. Yet, the following quote from a thank you letter we received illustrates that is not the case. “…Sometimes it seems like only a little can be done to help a family; it is so rewarding to see that to the family, what we might consider ‘little’ actually has a profound impact upon their lives.”

We are proud to be a part of the Philadelphia Marathon as an official charity. Events like this one bring awareness to our important cause and help us to raise money so we can continue providing help to all those families who need us.

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So, I’m asking you for one of two easy things (or both, if you can). First, click here to my donation page if you have an extra $5 you can contribute to a great cause. They’ve helped 2,100 kids in need and they’ve also helped Operation Jack. If you have $5 that won’t hurt your quality of life, just know that it will help somebody else’s quality of life.

Or, can you spread the word about my blog today and bring in just one new reader? That would help this cause, too.

Of course, you’re welcome to do both!

That’s all I have for today. Have a great day!

It’s Veterans Day, and if you read my recap of the Marine Corps Marathon, you know what I think of our troops, both past and present. They’re my heroes — the ones who are willing to die so strangers can live comfortably in peace. It doesn’t get much more heroic than that.

I feel pretty guilty talking about anything other than Veteran’s Day today, but I do have a couple of things I need to go over. Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here before, click here to see why I’m trying to run 61 marathons this year to benefit Train 4 Autism. So far, 53 down, eight to go.

The one quick bit of housekeeping I need to do: The 61st marathon of this will be the Operation Jack Marathon on December 26. If you can’t make it to the race, check out our satellite run option. It’s one last chance to participate with Operation Jack and help spread the word about Train 4 Autism! Plus, you get a medal out of the deal!

Yesterday I announced this and got quite a bit of feedback. I’m aiming for all 50 states, and it looks like I’m also going to have Afghanistan or Kuwait covered! I received the following reply on Twitter from John Atilano, which blew me away.

@operationjack count me in! I’ll either be in Kuwait or Afghanistan. I deploy Christmas Eve but I’ll make it happen for Jack!!

Wow, what do you even say to that? Well first, I said thank you and told him how exciting that was to me. I really can’t even put it into words. It’s just awesome and I’ll leave it at that. But I told him I wanted to feature him a bit in my blog today since it’s Veteran’s Day. He’s cool with that, so I sent him a few questions.

1. I saw on your site that you’re in the Army. What is your role?
1. I’m a Major in the United States Army. I’m a Combat Engineer Officer. For the past few years I’ve been doing mostly Strategic Planning jobs. First at the Pentagon and currently with the US Army Corps of Engineers. In between those two assignments, I did a combat tour in Iraq as a Team Commander for a Military Transition Team where myself and my 10 team members lived, trained and fought with an Iraqi Armor Battalion in Baghdad.

2. I also saw that you’ve been to Kuwait and Iraq. Were those during war times?
2. Several deployments. Kuwait in ’97; Bosnia in ’99; Korea ’00-’02; Iraq ’07-’08. Upcoming deployment to Afghanistan will be my second combat tour.

3. What made you decide to join the military?
3. My dad is a Vietnam vet as are my uncles. Grandad served in WWII. I was going to enlist after high school but my dad wanted me to got college first. I took his advice. I worked full-time for Bank of America while I went to college full-time at night. At 22, I was one of the youngest corporate officers at BofA. The problem was my heart just wasn’t in banking. Driving home from work one day I decided I was going to enlist in the Army. I didn’t want to be 40 years old and wish I had served. Now I’m 41 and have no regrets. Best decision I ever made. The Army sent me to Harvard for grad school. While I was there, I met my wife. We now have three beautiful children — two boys and a girl. That’s the short version.

4. Switching gears, how did you find out about Operation Jack?
4. I found out about Operation Jack through Twitter. Saw some retweets of your posts. Checked out your website and was amazed and inspired by what you were doing.

5. What made you decide to be willing to do the run on the 26th?
5. I started following you on twitter and reading your blog. As a father I totally understand your motivation. As a daddy we want to slay the dragons in our children’s lives. Unfortunately, a child’s illness cannot be healed with brute force, or a hug and a kiss. We have to find a way to help. I’ve been blessed with three healthy children but I wanted to help you and Jack, even if it was in a very small way. When I saw your post about the Operation Jack Finale I really wanted to participate. I just decided I was going to do this regardless of where I was. In all honestly, there is somewhat of a selfish secondary reason for doing it. I’ll be at the beginning of 6-month deployment. Instead of feeling sorry for myself and focusing inward, I can focus on helping you help your son. If you can do 61 marathons in a year (an incredible feat) surely I can knock out a 10K the day after Christmas.

Wow, so I don’t even know what to say. I’ll just say that I’m totally honored to have somebody like John following along. Normally I have something witty or clever to say, but I just don’t this time. Thank you for following along and participating with Operation Jack. But most important, thank you for doing what you do for our country.

I was teaching my 9-year-old son about respect last week and soldiers were the first example I used of people who deserved respect. Soldiers put their life on their line, far away from home, for people they don’t even know. That’s as admirable as it gets. And as I told Benjamin, you guys are the bravest, toughest people in the country. Again, thank you for what you do. Stay safe and get the heck back here.

I See This Every Year And I Love It
Some veterans bear visible signs of their service: a missing limb, a jagged scar, a certain look in the eye. Others may carry the evidence inside them: a pin holding a bone together, a piece of shrapnel in the leg – or perhaps another sort of inner steel: the soul’s ally forged in the refinery of adversity. Except in parades, however, the men and women who have kept America safe wear no badge or emblem. You can’t tell a vet just by looking.

What is a vet?

He is the cop on the beat who spent six months in Saudi Arabia sweating two gallons a day making sure the armored personnel carriers didn’t run out of fuel.

He is the barroom loudmouth, dumber than five wooden planks, whose overgrown frat-boy behavior is outweighed a hundred times in the cosmic scales by four hours of exquisite bravery near the 38th parallel.

She or he—is the nurse who fought against futility and went to sleep sobbing every night for two solid years in Da Nang.

He is the POW who went away one person and came back another—or didn’t come back AT ALL.

He is the Quantico drill instructor who has never seen combat—but has saved countless lives by turning slouchy, no-account rednecks and gang members into Marines, and teaching them to watch each other’s backs.

He is the parade—riding Legionnaire who pins on his ribbons and medals with a prosthetic hand.

He is the career quartermaster who watches the ribbons and medals pass him by.

He is the three anonymous heroes in The Tomb Of The Unknowns, whose presence at the Arlington National Cemetery must forever preserve the memory of all the anonymous heroes whose valor dies unrecognized with them on the battlefield or in the ocean’s sunless deep.

He is the old guy bagging groceries at the supermarket—palsied now and aggravatingly slow—who helped liberate a Nazi death camp and who wishes all day long that his wife were still alive to hold him when the nightmares come.

He is an ordinary and yet an extraordinary human being—a person who offered some of his life’s most vital years in the service of his country, and who sacrificed his ambitions so others would not have to sacrifice theirs.

He is a soldier and a savior and a sword against the darkness, and he is nothing more than the finest, greatest testimony on behalf of the finest, greatest nation ever known.

So remember, each time you see someone who has served our country, just lean over and say Thank You. That’s all most people need, and in most cases it will mean more than any medals they could have been awarded or were awarded.

Two little words that mean a lot, “THANK YOU.”

Remember November 11th is Veterans Day.

“It is the soldier, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press. It
is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech. It is the
soldier, not the campus organizer, who has given us the freedom to demonstrate.
It is the soldier, who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose
coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag.”

Father Dennis Edward O’Brien, USMC

Last week, I finally announced the date and location of the Operation Jack Marathon, which will be the 61st and final marathon I run this year in my quest to raise money and awareness for Train 4 Autism. Today, I have some information about how you can participate and earn a medal if you’re not going to be near the race site in Manhattan Beach, Calif.

Real quick, in case you’re new here and wondering why I’m talking about 61 marathons this year, I’m a father of three and a distance runner. My middle child, 7-year-old Jack, is severely autistic and I’m trying to do what I can to make a difference. I’m attempting to run 61 marathons to raise money and awareness for a charity I’m a part of called Train 4 Autism. So far, I’m through 53 of the 61!

Anyways, the 61st race is going to be something I’m putting on with Train 4 Autism called the Operation Jack Marathon. It’s going to take place in Manhattan Beach and Marina Del Rey on December 26. That’s 46 days from today, not that I’m counting!

I know there are folks who would run the race if they could, but they can’t because they’re too far away. So, we’re creating remote options.

In the Portland area, Operation Jack supporters Steve Walters and Deb Bosilevac are putting on something called the Operation Jack Northwest Challenge. It’s going to be a 6.1-hour timed race with a 6.1-mile option (6.1 is a play on 61). They’re the same folks who put on the Operation Jack 7-Hour Challenge back in September. That race was a great success, so they’re putting this on, too. Participants will get medals and probably shirts. We’re finalizing the pricing and will announce that very soon.

For everybody not near L.A. or Portland, we’re doing something else. We’re going to have remote Operation Jack Marathon runs. You run 6.1 miles and we’re going to send a medal and a t-shirt. More important, it’s one last opportunity to raise money and awareness for Train 4 Autism. I know a lot of you out there like what I’ve been doing and you’ve been lurking here for a while. A lot of you tell me I inspire you.

With these 61 marathons, are you at least inspired enough to go out for 6.1 miles on December 26 to support Train 4 Autism? Do it outside, do it inside on the treadmill, run it in 40 minutes or walk it in two hours. But do it.

I want folks to do this in all 50 states. I want you to do it, then help me find people in states where I don’t have anybody. Let’s do this. This is all I’m asking of you for the whole year. We’re still finalizing the pricing on this, but I’m thinking I’ll have this by tomorrow.

I’m going to get a state chart and I want you guys to help me fill it. So, who’s in? Who has questions? Leave a comment or send me an email and I’ll get back to you as soon as we’re ready to go. Let’s do this!