Page 21 - January 2021

Lodge 7 Magazine 2020 Person of the Year
Zechariah’s Run
FOP honors the kid who has made great strides to show appreciation for the police
n BY MITCHELL KRUGEL
To feel the magnitude of what Zechariah Cartledge has achieved, check out the great lengths Lodge 7 President John Catanzara traveled to show appreciation to perhaps the great- est single appreciator of law enforcement in the U.S. On Jan. 5, Catanzara made the three-hour-plus drive from a labor seminar he was attending in South Florida to Winter Springs to see Cartledge do his
most recent “Running 4 Heroes.” And then, Cat- anzara made the three- hour-plus drive back to Deerfield Beach.
The Lodge 7 President also presented 12-year- old Zechariah with a $5,000 check he had pledged three months earlier to support Run- ning 4 Heroes, the non- profit which raises mon- ey for families of first responders lost in the line of duty.
Cartledge runs one mile to honor first re- sponders who make the ultimate sacrifice. Cat- anzara met him at the National FOP Fall board of directors meeting in Jacksonville, where he was being honored for his achievements.
“He just wowed the
room with his presence
and his articulation,”
Catanzara recalled. “A
donation war started
right after that, and Lodge after Lodge stepped up to make pledges. I made one for $5,000 on our behalf and had been waiting for a chance to deliver it in person.”
In 2018, Cartledge ran the Tunnel to Towers 5K in Orlando, which honored the sacrifices made by first responders and members of the military. During the race, Cartledge was hand- ed a name tag for Walwyn Stuart, an officer who was killed while attempting to save victims in the World Trade Center on 9/11. The experience of running for Stuart with other first re- sponders by his side inspired Cartledge to dedicate more of his runs to fallen officers.
In 2019, he made his first Running 4 Heroes trek, a three- mile run around his neighborhood in Winter Springs. Mile 1 was for Mark Natale, mile 2 was for Harry Valentin and mile 3 was in honor of William Farley. In 2018, the former New York City Police Department officers died from cancer linked to
the toxic dust and smoke from responding at Ground Zero on 9/11.
“When I first went to run at the Tunnels to Towers event, I saw around 500 to 1,000 firefighters, officers and military members running in their full gear alongside me, and it just clicked and inspired me,” Cartledge has said. “Our first re- sponders do so much for us. I want to let them know they are
appreciated.”
Before each run,
Zechariah pulls out his fact sheet about the fall- en first responder and says a quick prayer. He then runs while carry- ing a thin blue line flag, which he later sends to families of the fallen first responder.
As of Jan. 6, Cartledge has run 10 miles in 2021, 401 miles in 2020 and 376 miles in 2019, for a total of 787 miles. He’s logged miles in Flori- da, New York, Georgia, South Carolina, Penn- sylvania, Illinois, Tex- as, Kentucky, Arkansas, Nevada, California and Arizona.
“His passion for what he’s doing, the fact that he’s just a normal kid who had an idea and ran with it, is pretty amazing,” Catanzara added. “He just decided to stand on his convic- tions, and that is pretty special in this era of an-
ti-police sentiment.”
Running 4 Heroes was able to make more than $120,000
in grants to families of fallen first responders during 2020. Cartledge’s passion is so inspiring that FOP Lodges stepped up with nearly a third of that when he was honored at the Fall meeting.
And he has become so motivating that officers from the de- partment of the fallen sister or brother being remembered of- ten come out to run with him. Catanzara said he wanted to run a mile with Cartledge when he went to Winter Springs on Jan. 5 to deliver the donation. But the need to make the return trip later that night prompted putting off that loop.
“I promised him that next time I come back we will run for one of our officers,” Catanzara noted. “This is the kind of kid who makes us all feel appreciated. He is our hero.”
CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ JANUARY 2021 21