The memory of Martin Richard, who was killed 10 years ago this week in the Boston Marathon bombing, was cemented in time at the age of 8. But his closest friends are now young adults who have been preparing to run their first Boston Marathon next Monday in his honor.

The passage of a decade has been both fast and slow for the friends, who are running as members of The Martin Richard Foundation’s Team MR8. Most of them have grown up with a few mementos of his life but rich memories.

Nolan Cleary, 18, has a pair of old sneakers that Martin gave him. They still hang in his closet.

Jack Burke, 19, recalls how Martin wouldn’t let basketball games start at recess until every kid was picked for a team.

Ava O’Brien, 18, has used her involvement in the Martin Richard Challenger sports league for physically challenged kids to remember her friend because she knows he would have been right beside her.

Other pals recall playing baseball with him, or how he would apologize if he threw the ball too hard in a game of “scooter tag.”

All of them were eight years old – small children in third grade – when the tragedy unfolded on that fateful Marathon Monday.

Ten years later, those memories will animate their experiences next Monday.

“It was perfect when they called me to participate and I jumped in on it,” said Burke, a Boston College High graduate, and a goalie for the Cape Cod Seahawks. “It was kind of like his dream growing up to run the Marathon. Now that I’m old enough, I get to live that dream for him.”

Cleary, now a freshman at Purdue University, said he dreams of crossing the finish line for Martin, but still has a mix of emotions about that. “I won’t know exactly what those feelings will be until I turn that corner and head to the finish line; I know right now I feel a little nervous and a little excited,” he said.

The friends will don the Team MR8 race bib and join 55 other hand-picked runners, including Martin’s brother, Henry Richard, and his father, Bill Richard. The MR8 team first ran in 2014, but stopped its fundraising runs in 2020. Henry Richard ran solo for the Foundation last year, and this year Bill and Denise Richard have revived Team MR8 for the tenth anniversary.

Besides Cleary, Burke, and O’Brien, the other runners include Gerald Cahill, Jefferson Driscoll, Anthony Datish, Peter Datish, Theo Stanley, Michael McCarthy, Liley Damatin, Jessie DeLouis, and Ellie Holabird.

“I always wanted to run the Marathon with MR8 since they started running, but I was never old enough,” said Cleary. “Since they brought it back for the 10th anniversary and all of Martin’s friends are now 18, it feels like just the right way to remember him.”

Added O’Brien, a senior at Thayer Academy: “It was kind of the right time. Ten years is a big year, and they got the running team back together. I was honored to be asked to run. It’s very meaningful because Martin always wanted to run it, and we get to run our first race in his honor.”

As they have trained, the friends said they reached back into their memories of Martin – things like inclusion and Martin’s message of “No More Hurting People” – came to mind.

“When I’m running, I feel him with me,” said Burke. “I want to stop or catch my breath, but I know I have to keep going. To be able to run for him, I know I have to keep going.”

Cleary’s memories are more tangible in the form of that pair of sneakers that Martin gave him in his first year of basketball. He had worn them out but couldn’t throw them away.

“I grew out of the shoes right around when it happened,” he said. “I told myself that I was going to hold on to them…They always just stayed in the closet next to an MR8 sign. I kept them to remember him. They’re a daily remembrance – something real that’s there to remind me of him.”

Cleary, Burke, and O’Brien shared the same third grade classroom with Martin at Neponset’s Neighborhood House Charter School (NHCS). They recall a great year with teacher Kim Canuto up until that April day, sharing birthday parties, class field trips, and slushies on the sidewalk.

Others, like Cahill, remember playing sports with Martin – Cahill at Cedar Grove and Martin for Savin Hill.

“I remember that day vividly,” Cahill said of Marathon Monday. “It was the first time I really experienced a death that was close to me. It was the first time I saw adults crying, my aunts and family. I heard something big happened that day. I was too young to fully understand, though.”

Cleary said he remembers crying for hours after learning about Martin and attending an impromptu Mass at St. Ann’s Church. He also remembers the massive candlelight vigil at Garvey Park a few days later.

Thousands gathered for a vigil in Neponset’s Garvey Park on April 16, 2013— the day after the terrorist bombing that claimed the life of four people, including Dorchester’s Martin Richard, 8. Chris Lovett photo

As time has moved on, the memory of Martin and of his grade-school hopes and dreams are increasingly less defined for those in the general public, those new to the area, or those too young to have known what happened. Others just aren’t aware of the story.
These 12 young adults, his grade school friends, now feel compelled to be the storytellers and the standard-bearers who will keep Martin’s message of inclusion fresh.

For Ava O’Brien, that means dedicating significant time to the Challenger League, which is funded by the MR8 Foundation and run every Sunday in four sports by the Boys & Girls Clubs of Dorchester.

“It’s very important to those families because they don’t get the same opportunities as other kids,” she said. “It’s really important we keep that going. I think that seeing it succeed and seeing everyone so happy is crucial. It’s a good way to show what the Foundation is all about – inclusion of everyone and Martin’s message of inclusion.”

Said Jack Burke, “I think we keep his memory alive through the foundation and by telling everyone his message of peace and ‘No More Hurting People.’ We have to spread that everywhere and preach it to everyone,” he said.

To contribute, go to https://www.givengain.com/cc/mr8boston23/.