A Close-Up Look At People Who Matter : Man Uses His Legs to Lend Helping Hand

Six mornings a week, just as the sun is dusting light onto the roof of his West Hills home, Ed Rasky swings his 68-year-old legs onto the floor of his bedroom and asks them to run.

Rasky runs past neighbors plucking newspapers off their lawns, past waking San Fernando Valley roads.

Each fall, morning becomes a time for perspiration and perseverance as Rasky trains for the Los Angeles Marathon, his only race of the year.

On March 6, Rasky will run the 26.5-mile course he’s conquered eight times already. With him he carries the support of strangers and friends who have pledged money and the hopes of the young cancer victims who will be sent to camp with those pledges.

Rasky has raised more than $40,000 for the Ronald McDonald Camp for Good Times, a free camp for children with cancer, in his eight years running the marathon.

Rasky, who ran his first marathon at 54, directed summer camps for 18 years and decided to help when he read about the camp in a newspaper.

“I know how much fun a kid has at a summer camp. When I heard about this I said, ‘This is for me,’ ” Rasky said. “If you think of a kid, he’s about 10 years of age and has cancer, doesn’t know if he’s going to live. For me to know he’s going to have at least one week at camp where he’ll have a great time. . . .”

The camp, which rents space at different sites, operates five nine-day day summer sessions for children 7 through 18. Weekend sessions accommodate younger children and their families.

“They get to feel what it’s like to be a kid rather than someone who’s always in the hospital,” said Brian Crater, camp director. “It’s a chance not to worry about the day-to-day things, to be able to do hikes and campfires and be able to enjoy each other. It’s a way to normalize.”

Through the summer and family camps and weekend winter sessions, the camp served about 1,000 children and 300 family members last year, said Crater.

About a dozen of those children can thank Rasky, who last year raised about $6,000 to offset the $500 the camp organization spends for each child to have a week at camp.

This time each year, Rasky starts digging up pledges, posting signs at the Warner Center Racquet Club, where he plays tennis five days a week, soliciting former teaching colleagues, poker buddies, even strangers for pledges.

“They’re kind of used to me,” said the retired English teacher from Reseda’s Cleveland High School. “They say, ‘Oh, is it that time of year again?’ ”

Though the camp has received donations from celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Dustin Hoffman and Sally Struthers, Rasky is just as much a hero, said Crater.

“It seems amazing to us that he goes out and does that. For these kids it seems a lot more amazing,” Crater said. “He’s someone who has experienced a lot of life but still has the energy to help them and motivate them.”

Rasky uses thoughts of the children he’s met in four years of volunteering at the camps to help him through the race. “The great time the kids are going to have gives me a tremendous amount of energy,” he said.

Rasky needs those images in the painful last six miles.

“The problem is I hit the wall at the 20-mile mark. Nobody can explain that except that you can’t lift your legs. You say ‘Up legs,’ and they won’t,” he said. “I run about a nine-minute mile up to the 20-mile mark. After that, phhhhbbbt.”

But Rasky, who last year ran in 5 hours, 10 minutes, nearly three hours slower than the Brazilian winner, isn’t complaining.

“It’s worth it. It’s worth it when I see the looks on the kids’ faces,” he said. “So much teaching goes on, so much creativity, so many good, positive vibes. There’s so much emotional growth they go through. I can’t imagine anything nicer for a kid with cancer.”

Personal Best is a weekly profile of an ordinary person who does extraordinary things. Please address prospective candidates to Personal Best, Los Angeles Times, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth, 91311. Or fax them to (818-772-3338).