'Mercy Home Hero' Chicago Marathoner Lived There As Teen

CHICAGO — More than 300 runners in this weekend's Bank of America Chicago Marathon will take to the streets of 29 city neighborhoods to raise money for the Mercy Home for Boys & Girls, but for one Flossmoor man the endeavor is particularly personal.

On his 15th birthday in 1985, Pat Zamkin was taken to the Mercy Home for Boys & Girls in Chicago by his adopted mother. Already a foster child since 18 months old, Zamkin finally found a family that cared about his well-being when he arrived at the Mercy Home for boys in the West Loop.

“The house I came from was a house of horrors,” he said. “This place (Mercy Home) was a safe haven.”

At Mercy Home, he learned how to work with his feelings of anger and rejection and received the resources he needed to succeed academically before building a career as a market reporter for the Board of Trade and raising two children.

Sunday's Marathon will be his fourth as a member of the "Mercy Home Heroes" Chicago Marathon team. The 26.2-mile race begins early in the morning on Sunday, Oct. 13 in Grant Park.

"It’s a top-notch organization that's doing things right," Zamkin said of Mercy Home. "The opportunity that's given to these kids is the turning point in their lives, for the better, for a positive, healthy and productive future.

"I want to help in any way I can, and if that means running 26.2 miles once a year, that’s a small sacrifice for me."

It's one of the ways for him to help an organization that helped him in so many ways decades ago.

“I'm just really excited to be a part of something where I can put a spotlight on a cause that’s so near and dear to my heart," he said. I look forward to telling more and more people about Mercy Home and the great things they did for me and for other kids."

In addition to running the marathon Zamkin continues to help Mercy Home year-round by mentoring children and serving on the Ambassadors Board. His goal is to run one more marathon as part of the Mercy Home team, then take on other world running events.

Mercy Home will have a cheer party for Zamkin and the other runners on the team outside the home near mile marker 17 at 1140 W. Jackson Boulevard on Sunday.

“The whole cheer party at Mercy Home is a reminder of what I am running for," Zamkin said. "After doing this three times, that's what I really look forward to the most.”