Kids’ Run Honors Lost Loved Ones

On Sunday, 18 kids from the San Fernando Valley will run a mile in the 16th annual Los Angeles Marathon in memory of their parents or other loved ones who have died.

“I want to honor him,” said 11-year-old Lauren Bachelis of Calabasas, who will run mile 14 with her 7-year-old brother, Brett, in memory of their father, Jim, who died three years ago of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. “I think he would be proud of me.”

The children are participating--rain or shine--for Our House, a nonprofit bereavement organization that offers grief support services, including those for children and widows.

Most stay in the groups for a year to 18 months, Executive Director Susan Galeas said. Fees are based on a family’s ability to pay. “At first I thought [Our House] sounded lame or stupid,” said 14-year-old Skylar Lenox of Valley Glen.

“I thought I didn’t need it. But then at about 10 months after my dad died, things got really hard. I realized [his death] was final.”

This year’s race will be the third Skylar has run for Our House. Her father died four years ago of a heart attack.

“It’s a mile marker for me to see how far I’ve come,” she said.

For Daniel Gruber of Reseda, Sunday’s race is his first. Daniel, 10, lost his father, Michael, two years ago to cancer. At first Daniel was in denial his father was gone, he said. Not wanting to be different from other kids, he even made a Father’s Day card for his dad at school.

But after a year of getting support from Our House, things changed.

“They slowly drew him out,” said his mother, Ruby. And now, she said Daniel wants to acknowledge how much Our House helped him and run in Sunday’s race “to give something back.”

Forty-one kids from throughout the Los Angeles area, all sponsored by Our House, will participate in the race. Last year the event raised $35,000 in pledges to help fund the organization.

Each will be given a predetermined mile to run and will pass off a sign--relay style--from mile marker to marker.

This is the seventh year that Our House, an official charity of the Los Angeles Marathon, has participated. And it marks the first year the kids as a group will wear pictures of their deceased loved ones on their T-shirts.

“It breaks my heart in a million pieces to see her wearing that shirt,” said Sherman Oaks resident Alison Clay of her 10-year-old daughter, Baxter. The girl’s father, Robert Clay, died last spring of a heart attack while the family was living in Saudi Arabia.

“The year anniversary is coming up,” Baxter said.

For Baxter, the death meant not only losing her father but having to abruptly leave a country she loved.

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The family also was left to cope economically because they did not have life insurance. Now Baxter must also cope with seeing her mother less because Alison works long hours to support them.

Sunday’s race is just another step to help Baxter in her grief.

“She’s just running to the future,” Alison said, “and I hope like heck it doesn’t rain.”

Other children participating in Sunday’s walk for Our House from the San Fernando Valley are: Hannah Farber, 11, of Encino; Kyle Nussbaum, 11, of Chatsworth; Marissa, 14, and Michele Schaeffer, 12, of Sherman Oaks; Adam Fall, 11, of Van Nuys; Jeffrey, 7, Kevin, 10, and Michael Manahan, 12, of Newhall; Nicole, 9, and Scott, 5, Thompson of Encino; Darrin, 8, and Gavin, 10, Weltsch, of Van Nuys; Katie Hughes, 11, of West Hills and a team of six students from San Fernando Middle School.

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