Dear friends, family and colleagues,

One more time I ask for your generosity and support in helping me out with one of the causes that has been special to me over the last 15 years. As many of you know, I ruptured the disk in my back in 1992 and was not sure for 30 days if I was ever going to stand up and walk again.

I made a deal with G-d (one of my better deals by the way, since I have made some bad deals with G-d that I wish I could take back) and promised that if the surgery worked and I got healthy again, I would do something significant to help people who were physically challenged. The attached article is hard to read since it was scanned in 1997 when I did my first fundraiser for the Boston Home, a very special residency for people with multiple sclerosis.

This coming Monday Adjowah Scott (co-founder/principal of TI Charter School) and I are leaving NYC at 5AM to get to Boston by 8:33AM so that we can push two of our Boston Home friends in the Boston Marathon. This is the 9th time I have done so and it is part of what we at Tech International Charter School will be calling the TI Circle of Giving -- teaching 6th graders not to take things for granted including your health -- and to give back to others. Below are quotes from some of the eight previous marathons:

• From Linda S in 1999, the third marathon we did: "It was wonderful, but just as frustrating. I could not go over the finish line. I enjoyed the RAH RAH RAH, yeah Linda, yeah Linda, yeah Linda. GE for good enough, right now. I enjoyed it very much. I hope everyone else did."
• From BH resident Tom P who wrote and recorded two versions of this song in 2000: "Whether you are a construction worker or an attorney, life's a journey, life's a journey. But if you make it inch by inch, life's a cinch, inch by inch." Alternate version that he enjoyed more! "Whether you are a construction worker or an attorney, life's a journey, life's a journey. But if you make it with an occasional hitch, life's still a bitch, yes still a bitch."
• From one of the Chapin girls who came with me in 2004: "I have been waiting for this trip since last year. I am so excited to meet Colleen who I have been communicating with since fourth grade and I did the BH Project for her, and have been working on her book! I gotta go because I am about to get so excited I am bouncing off the walls."

Please consider supporting us by donating ANYTHING. I am serious. Our webpage set up for PLEDGES of GOLD, SILVER, BRONZE, GREEN or PI. Every PI pledge of $3.14 is appreciated beyond belief. Why? Because little things count and little things add up. Every person who pledges anything is a hero to us!