A team of 100 runners affiliated with the Martin Richard Foundation are training hard for next month’s BAA Boston Marathon, set for April 17. The foundation’s team— affectionately known as Team MR8— includes 18 Dorchester residents who are all raising funds to aid the Fields Corner-based organization, which is devoted to keeping Martin’s peace-filled message alive through good deeds and philanthropy.

The Dot contingent that has been fundraising and training to cross the finish line this year is Eoin Cannon, Monica Davis, John Delano, Pat Doherty, Dianne Lescinskas, Michael McCarthy, Rachel Moo, Kathleen Mullen, Cailin Pagel, Patrick Ryan, Talia Siravo, Jack Wu, Laura and Peter Oggeri, Sheryl Patel, Pat Brophy, Derek Mourad and Steve Wilkins.

As in years past, a larger group of runners will gather at the Eire Pub in Adams Village to run a mile loop on Saturday, April 15 at 5 p.m. All are welcome to join in the run in a solidarity with the Richard family and Team MR8. Many of the team members are also planning individual events aimed at building awareness and raising funds. Each runner on the team is committed to raising at least $2,000 for the foundation.
Collectively, Team MR8 has already raised $428,058 out of their $750,000 goal for 2017— making them one of the top fundraising teams participating in the BAA Boston Marathon.

“All Team MR8 runners have access to professional training and fundraising support from team manager Susan Hurley, founder of Charity Teams, Inc., a North Andover, Massachusetts based company that helps small non-profits grow through athletic fundraising,” according to the Team MR8 website.

Talia Siravo, a first grade teacher at Saint John Paul II Catholic Academy in Lower Mills, was a spectator on Bolyston Street— waiting for her fiancé to cross the finish line —when the bombs went off on Patriots Day, 2013.

“I remember feeling heartbroken and filled with impossible questions,” she wrote. “Nothing seemed fair. However, in the weeks and months that followed, I remember seeing something incredible. In the midst of heartache and pain, a community banded together to help one another. I made a silent promise to myself to run the Boston Marathon and so my running journey began. “For the past 3 years I have run many races,” Siravo wrote. “I feel blessed to run my most important race for Team MR8.”

Siravo has already surpassed her goal of $7,500 for Team MR8—raising $11,046 to date.

Cailin Pagel’s is running her first-ever marathon and she’s already beat her goal of raising $7,500 for Team MR8. She’s hauled in $9,056 in pledges, according to her fundraising page.

“Team MR8 honors values that have been instilled in myself from as far as I can remember,” she wrote. “They are a huge support to local sports organizations and for myself sports have always been a huge part of my life. I believe that the coaches and teammates that I was so lucky to spend so much time with growing up really helped mold me into the person I am today. It feels so good to be part of a team again.”

Dianne Lescinskas, who is running her first marathon, has already raised $965 of her $2,000 goal. She will be hosting a fundraiser with two other runners on Team MR8— Brendan Raftery and David Gilmartin, at Florian Hall on March 31 from 7 p.m. -midnight. Tickets are $20 per person. Donations are welcome at the door and can also be made on their pledge page online through teammr8.org.

“[I’m] honored and proud to be running my very first marathon for the Martin Richard Charitable Foundation,” said Lescinskas. “Please consider donating to my fundraising efforts - the foundation gives back to so many great causes including the Martin Richard Challenger Sports Program - a program that I had the amazing opportunity to run for three years and now I volunteer as a coach.”

Rachel Moo, who has run for the past three years, has a personal connection with Martin, whom she taught. The iconic photo of Martin holding a sign he made with the words “No more hurting people, Peace”— was done in her classroom and “is one that quintessentially defines Martin and his beliefs,” Moo said.

“Martin was a student in my second grade class, and he always demonstrated the qualities of a peacemaker,” Moo wrote. “Through the Peace Studies curriculum I developed, our class studied famous activists like Gandhi, MLK Jr., Cesar Chavez, and Nelson Mandela. We learned about their nonviolent approach to strive for social justice, and the class took these lessons to heart and generated several peace rallies and marches throughout the school year.”

“I now run as a way to not only spread his message of peace, but to spend time with him,” said Moo. “I find I do my best thinking while thinking through things with him on a long run.”

Moo has raised $2,554 so far, according to her fundriaing page.

Patrick Ryan, an original member of Team MR8, held a fundraiser at the Banshee last week. He’s collected $826 of his $5,000 goal to date.

“You’ve made signs and cheered me and the rest of Team MR8 on along during the miles to Boylston Street. Boston’s and your response to a tragedy in our own community is an inspiration every day. That’s why I re-upped for another long run in April, 2017,” Ryan explained.

Jack Wu, co-owner of Fields Corner’s home.stead bakery & café, said that running a marathon has always been on his “bucket list for years.”

“But joining the cycling group that Bill Richard leads has been such a meaningful experience in getting to know him and the family better and in so doing, has elevated running the marathon from mere bucket list item, to an endeavor with real purpose and true significance,” wrote Wu. “ My goal is to complete the marathon within six hours and raise at least $7,500 for the foundation.”

John Delano is running his first Boston Marathon.

“It’s been an ultimate goal of mine to make the Boston Marathon my first marathon, but doing it through Team MR8 is nothing less than a privilege,” he said.

The Martin Richard Foundation will hold its annual community-wide cleanup on One Boston Day— Saturday, April 15. A clean-up will focus on Peabody Square and along Dorchester Avenue from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. followed by a Moment of Silence at the Peabody Square clock at 2:49 p.m. to remember Martin, Lingzi Lu, Krystal Campbell, Sean Collier and Boston Police Officer Dennis Simmonds. For more information— and to donate— visit teammr8.org.