Worcester, Mass. - Jake Kennedy was a staple at the Boston Marathon. He ran 37 races in a row, before passing away from ALS in 2020.

Now, to keep his streak alive, his son Dean is stepping in.

“There would be nothing better in my eyes to honor him, honor his legacy, honor everything he stood for than to go out there and do something he absolutely loved to do,” Dean said. 

A quarterbacks coach at the College of the Holy Cross, Dean is using College Hill as a training ground to get ready.

Monday will be Dean’s first marathon. His brother Chip will join him in running to raise money for the Jake Kennedy ALS Fund.

“I would love for everyone to spread our message,” Dean said. “The message means a lot to myself, my family. And any support, whether it be a dollar, a cent, a penny, whatever the case may be, is just as important as making sure we spread the message.”

A third Kennedy brother, Zack, is fighting ALS differently.

He’s a Post Doctoral Associate at UMass Chan Medical School’s RNA Therapeutics Institute. He’s studied the disease for years, searching for treatments.

“We’re creating very cutting edge gene-based, silencing-based technologies to kind of silence mutant genes and hopefully cure or treat ALS,” Zack said.

Zack says his family’s history with ALS goes beyond his father. They’ve lost several family members.

He says they’re close to finally having meaningful treatment, so the $1 million the family is looking to raise for the fund is crucial.

“You know, for 100 years, there’s been almost no hope,” Zack said. “Now we have a ton of hope. It’s really important that we can translate all these new technologies.”

Every year, the Kennedy’s gather at mile marker 24 on the marathon course. They’ll do it again in 2022.

Dad may not be there physically, but they say he’ll be with them.

When asked how his dad would respond to their efforts, an emotional Zack said, “he’d probably say ‘Hurry up.’ I’m sure he’d be proud.”