Although I previously ran the Marine Corps Marathon (and my knees still occasionally remind me of that fact), this year I am running the New York City half-marathon presented by Nike. Pheidippides, an Athenian herald, ran the 26 miles from the battlefield at Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over Persia in the Battle of Marathon (490 BC) with the words "Nike!", or "Victory!" and died on the spot. My New York friends remind me that if God wanted everyone to run Marathons there would be no word "TAXI!"

For me, running and helping in this event is a representation of the challenges that my two oldest sons face as they learn to express themselves through speech and sign language.  Autism is a neurological disorder that affects a person's ability to communicate, to reason, and to interact with others.  As many as one in 150 children (and one in 83 boys) are diagnosed with the disorder - more than 1.5 million Americans, and their families, are living with autism.

ABC News interviewed us for the release of a new study on autism; they were at our home for four hours!  You can see the 30 seconds that made it to the air on ABC's World News Tonight on Sunday, February 18, at: http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=2887089

"OAR directs all its energies toward evidence-based research for the children, adults, and families living with autism today. No other autism organization has this singular focus." OAR President, Peter Gerhardt, Ed.D.

 The purpose of OAR is to raise autism awareness and fund applied autism research. Your charitable donation helps OAR in multiple ways: