Charity Runner: UA Flight Attendant Running NYC Marathon for the Jason Dahl Scholorship Fund

On the Facebook Page for Will Run For Miles, I recently wrote: ” Please post here if you are running a fall marathon for charity. Please include the donation link.”  Please feel free to add your information there.

I’ve run one marathon for charity: the 2010 Boston Marathon for the Steps Foundation, a non-profit charity founded in 2009 by professional runners Ryan and Sara Hall, to fight global poverty and suffering through better health.

I found the learning process of running for charity, including learning about the charity, fund-raising and meeting others who were charity-minded, to be humbling, empowering, enriching and enlightening (I could go on, but 4 adjectives are enough).  For this reason, I am mindful and proud of friends, such as Daniel Nieves and Hideki Kinoshita aka Kino, and many others, who consistently run races and raise money for charitable causes.

Nick Pino

Today, welcome Nick Pino, a flight attendant with United Airlines since 2008.

Nick lives in New Jersey and is currently based out of  IAD.  He will be running in the New York City marathon on November 2nd.  United Airlines is an official sponsor of the NYC Marathon and held a company lottery for employees to run the marathon.  Nick, who says he was never a runner, claims that he entered the lottery by a fluke.  Obviously, it was not a fluke, because he was one of 37 entries selected in the lottery, and immediately bought running shoes and started training for his very first marathon!

Nick tells it like this:

I was really surprised and excited at the same time.  I knew that when I got this opportunity, I would defiantly want to take the opportunity to participate as I might never have a chance again in the future.  I started emailing friends, family and co-workers to let them know.  I knew that if I did this, I would have a lot of work ahead of me as I am not a runner. …  the first thing I did was go to the “road runner” store and get some new running shoes and clothes and start to train.  I have been training since July mostly just running as much as I can and on my layover as well.  A few days after I got my email and starting training I was thinking of with this wonderful operating why not raise money for a charity.  I was talking to co-workers and friends trying to figure out what charity I could try to raise money for.

Nick chose the  Captain Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund as his charity. Captain Dahl was the pilot of United Airlines Flight 93 which was hijacked at 9:28am on September 11, 2001, subsequently crashing at 10:02am in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. In 2002, the Captain Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund was established to provide two deserving aviation students a scholarship grant in Jason’s name. Originally available to students at Dahl’s Alma Mater, the program expanded to National status and is now an IRS-recognized 501(c)3 non-profit program supported through corporate and individual donations alike.

Nick chose the Jason Dahl Scholorship Fund to honor the legacy of the heroes of United Flight 93 and has set himself a goal of raising $5,000 for this cause.

Donation Information

If you would like to make a donation, please go here. Donations are tax deductible and it is an IRS qualified 501(c)3 Non-Profit Corporation.  In the special instructions section, which is on the last page before you hit pay, you can add “Nick Pino, NYC Marathon.”