Marathoner Runs for Child Cancer Victims

For 10 years, 69-year-old Ed Rasky has used his legs to raise money for children with cancer, soliciting pledges from friends and former colleagues while training to run in the Los Angeles Marathon.

The retired high school English teacher pulls himself out of bed six mornings a week to jog his routine eight-mile route through the sleepy streets of West Hills. He has raised an average of $5,000 a year for Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times.

The camp schedules activities year-round for children with cancer and their families.

Rasky is one of only 535 people to have completed all nine of the city’s annual marathons. He once finished the 26 1/2-mile course in three hours and 50 minutes, a respectable showing.

On March 5, Rasky will again run the race, but he has no designs on beating his best time. As a runner, Rasky knows that time is always working against him.

Worried about aggravating his skin cancer, diagnosed more than a decade ago, and frustrated by increasing aches in his knees, the marathoner of some 16 years is searching for someone to take his place.

“I’ll (continue to run) as long as my body will take me,” Rasky said, “but I won’t be around forever. I’m hoping that I can get some other runners interested in the camp or, maybe, come up with another way to continue funding.

“I’m lucky, because my cancer can be controlled. Some of these kids may not be alive for too much longer. When they’re at the camp, they forget that they’re bald (from chemotherapy) and that hospitals are such a major part of their lives.

“They just have a good time. I want to make sure they can continue to have that.”

Formerly conducting its programs from rented sites during the summer and winter seasons only, Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times recently moved to a permanent location in Idyllwild. There the facility will continue its activities for child patients and their families throughout the year.

Hoping to help subsidize the increased funding required for this endeavor, Rasky has taken to writing children’s stories about the camp when he is not training.

One is about an 11-year-old former cancer patient inspired by “Big Ed” to run in a marathon for other cancer patients.

If any of his stories get published, Rasky said all revenues will go directly toward funding the new Idyllwild facility.

Meanwhile, he and his wife, Sunny, can frequently be found on site coordinating nature programs or in the camp’s Los Angeles office handling clerical duties.

Camp director Brian Crater said the Raskys’ presence serves as an inspiration to the camp’s more than 500 staff volunteers.

“We never turn anyone away,” Crater said. “Every year, we get more and more campers, which means we need to receive greater funding.”

“Sometimes, it’s overwhelming. But every time we say we’ve done enough and are tired, we just take a look at Ed and remember that, before his day began, he went out and trained for a marathon.”

To pledge money toward Ed Rasky’s L. A. Marathon run or to contribute to Camp Ronald McDonald for Good Times, call (310) 476-8488.