A runner's dream come true

HAMBURG — The borough's retired police chief Jan Wright is no stranger to running marathons. As much as he has wanted to, however, he has never run the world-famous New York City marathon; runners are usually selected by a lottery drawing. So when he was asked to run in this year’s event with the team for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, he leapt at the opportunity. With this sponsorship in mind, he says, he has never run with such a sense of purpose, either: “I get the excitement of running the New York City Marathon as well as doing it for an organization I admire.” Wright was selected by the organization because of a case he worked on as a member of the Hamburg Police Department in 1997. On June 19 of that year, Hamburg resident Sam Fastow was abducted by his father, Steve, during a child visitation. The ensuing eight-month international investigation involved the Hamburg Police, State Police, FBI, Interpol and the National Center for Missing Exploited Children, Wright explained during a recent phone interview. Ten-year-old Sam was located when a relative of Fastow received a “Have You Seen Me” card in the mail and directed the search to where the father was keeping his son in Texas. Wright was then present when Sam was reunited with his mother, Abby Potash, in Houston, Texas, on March 30, 1998. Potash was so moved by the kidnapping and recovery that she became an advocate for families with missing children and is currently the director of Team HOPE, a peer support volunteer program of the Natinal Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to The Surviving Parents Coalition. Wright said that he has kept in contact with Potash through the years and it was she who extended the invitation to run in the New York City marathon to him — a gesture which “honored” Wright. Each member of the marathon team was selected because they have a personal life story that links them to the cause and each member will be raising funds to help the organization do more to reunite as many missing children with their parents as possible, much like Wright has done for Potash.

How to donate From now through the Nov. 4 event, Wright will be raising funds via his fundraising page at www.crowdrise.com/janwright.