School Officials Meet Students’ Challenge

Norman Isaacs has run a lot of miles in his life, including more than 200 accumulated in eight marathons.

But none meant as much to so many people as the 12 he set out to run yesterday.

The run was part of a deal Isaacs, principal of Millikan Middle School, and other faculty members made with students during the annual canned-food drive that ended last week. The drive was directed by teacher Howard Cahn’s leadership class. For every 500 cans collected, Isaacs and Cahn promised to run one mile.

By the end of the monthlong drive, the school’s 2,000 students had collected more than 6,300 cans of food for the North Hollywood Interfaith Food Pantry, an organization that gives food to more than 1,000 families a week.

“I said I’d do it and I’m going to try just as hard as they tried for me,” said Isaacs, who was not sure he’d make it because of a nagging injury to his Achilles heel.

The students were present to make sure Isaacs, Cahn and the several other teachers and administrators who were running gave it their best shot. Students covered the asphalt playground surface, holding signs reading “Go Teachers Go,” cheering, clapping and dancing to house music from a large speaker.

“It was our goal to break the old record [of 5,400 cans],” said eighth-grader Annie Tzenkova, 13, one of the drive’s organizers. “They have to run a lot, but that just means we did our job.”

The students were running too. Throngs of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders clad in white Millikan gym class T-shirts darted in and around the teachers. On the track, a pack of students surrounded Cahn, with more and more students joining the group each time he completed a quarter-mile lap. It was like Rocky without the stairs.

But the students could not outlast their mentors.

“It’s tough out there,” said seventh-grader Jason Contreras after finishing a 2 1/2-mile run, the longest of his athletic career.

Cahn agreed, but was more than happy to rack up the miles.

“Every year my students outdo themselves,” he said while swigging a drink handed to him by one of the students. “They know this is a good cause and they give it their all. We run to let them know we appreciate that.”