A magical marathon

This weekend will mark the fourth time Steven Sciortino heads down to Orlando, Fla. to run in the annual Walt Disney World Half Marathon. He will join thousands of racers on Jan. 7 to navigate the 13.1-mile course through Magic Kingdom and Epcot.

Sciortino, 54, isn’t a professional runner. He doesn’t do other marathons, triathlons or anything else. But once a year he runs at the theme parks to raise money for leukemia and lymphoma research.

Also, he really likes Disney.

Sciortino, who grew up in Oceanside and now lives and owns a catering business in Baldwin, started running the Disney Half Marathon four years ago at the suggestion of friend Erin McIntyre, whose husband, Bob, has leukemia. “Listen, why don’t you try doing this,” she told him. “It’s for a good cause, plus you get to spend a week in Disney.”

This year Sciortino, a self-described “Disney nut,” spent five months training, and raised $12,000, which will go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for research into the deadly blood disease.

Now, instead of Bob, he’s running for his sister-in-law, Cyndi Fellin, who was recently diagnosed. “The next person he’s trying to save,” Bob said.

There is no shortage of people to honor. “Cancer comes at any age and at any time in life, as all too many of us knows,” Sciortino wrote on his fundraiser page.

But thanks to experimental treatments developed from research funded by the LLS, Bob is currently in remission after living with the disease for more than a decade.

Not all of Sciortino’s stories, however, have a Disney fairytale ending.

Kevin Proto, 25, his friend’s nephew, had recently returned from deployment in Afghanistan when he was diagnosed with stage three leukemia. Sciortino ran in Proto’s honor in 2015, but he passed away shortly after.

Sciortino isn’t shy about soliciting donations wherever he can, and he’s not afraid to work his connections through his catering business, Delicious Moments Caterers. “I have no shame,” he said. “I have no problem with begging for money for this cause.”

Doing the run every year is no easy task, Sciortino said, as he wakes up six days a week at 5 a.m. to open his business and then goes home to train at night. He added that he constantly battles foot pain and was recently diagnosed with a stress fracture in his knee.

“[But] you reach down really deep and think [how] I’m fortunate I’m able to do this,” Sciortino said. “The physical pain is a fraction of what other people are going through.”

Although Disney World was the original draw for Sciortino — he’s been a Disney fan since he was 30 — he felt inspired to keep doing it after realizing the effect his efforts had on people with the disease, or ones who have survived it. Last year he raised more than $16,000, which goes toward leukemia and lymphoma research.

“The thing that sticks out the most in my mind is the generosity of total strangers,” he remarked. He has received donations for more than $1,000 from people he’s never met.

This year, a man named Andrew Cairns from Rochester, N.Y., donated $269 to Sciortino’s race and wrote to him on Facebook. “Good morning Steven. I don’t know you but your post came up in my Facebook feed… I noticed you were close to achieving your goal and now you can say that you have.” Sciortino’s fundraising goal continues to increase as the donations roll in.

So far Sciortino has dedicated his races to specific people in his life, but even if he fails to find someone new in the future, he knows he will still run. “People I’ve run for in the past are always going to be part of my run,” he said. “They’re always there.”

He said that regardless of whom he runs for, “This will be something I’ll be doing for the rest of my life.”

If you would like to donate, visit Sciortino’s fundraising page at http://pages.teamintraining.org/li/wdw17/ssciortino.