Teen runs 15 miles for his sister and autism awareness

HAMBURG — On Sunday, Oct. 25 at 7 a.m., 67-year-old Bruce Wask of Fredon set out on a mission — to run 53 miles. Dimitri Kochka-Thoma of Hamburg is just 14 but he is a determined young man. On Sunday, Oct. 25, he accompanied 67-year-old Bruce Wask of Fredon on what they’d hoped would be a 53-mile run, set up to bring attention to autism. “My older sister has severe autism,” Dimitri said, “I’m going to go as far as I can today for her.” He had solicited six sponsors at a dollar a mile each. “If I can run the whole thing, that’s lots of money for the cause,” he said. Dimitri ended up running about 15 miles and Noah Keppler, a 13-year-old from Stillwater, did a total of 19.5 miles. Wask did it for his granddaughter Alexandra, who has autism. Flanked by family, friends, members of Kittatinny High School’s cross country team and some of the kids’ coaches in the Bears Youth Running Program, the group hit the rail trail where it crosses Paulins Kill Road at the Stillwater/Fredon border at 7 a.m. Members of the Fredon Volunteer Fire Department set up a table to collect donations and Charlie Keppler, a seventh-grader at Ridge and Valley School, was the designated cyclist accompanying the runners with a backpack full of supplies and a cell phone. Young Noah Keppler was in it for the cause but more for the challenge of seeing how many miles he could run. “I love distance running,” he said. Wask had run 35 miles when his wife made the decision to get him off the trail, and with help of running friend and Bears coach Michael Bussow, they loaded him into a car and drove him back to the starting point where all of his supporters were waiting to give him a standing ovation. Wask said he had wanted to walk until dusk, but “it was the right decision to stop.” He was a little woozy from the day and said, “When you go at my pace, the blisters got pretty bad.” As if it had been planned, five minutes after he drove up to the Paulins Kill dam, his granddaughter arrived. Wask pinned the autism awareness ribbon on her shirt.