Nate Boxdorfer, band director for Northwest R-1 School District’s Woodridge Middle School, not only runs to stay fit, but also to help a good cause.
Since running his first marathon in 2017, Boxdorfer, 36, of Affton has raised $6,200 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
“Unfortunately, childhood cancer is not going away anytime soon,” he said. “There’s always somebody who knows somebody who has cancer. It’s just a good charity.”
For a lot of marathons, people must have a qualifying race time to enter, but since Boxdorfer runs for a charity, he does not have to hit a specific qualifying time, just a fundraising amount.
Boxdorfer said he decided to start running and raising money for St. Jude after his wife’s family member, Maya Collins, was diagnosed with leukemia and learned about the work the hospital does.
“She actually died as we were training,” he said.
Boxdorfer said she died on Oct. 3, 2017, at the age of 14, and his first race was in December. He raised $620 for that marathon.
He ran another marathon to benefit St. Jude in 2019, raising $1,562.
In 2020, he was signed up to run the New York City Marathon, but the COVID-19 pandemic struck, canceling the in-person race.
“I had already committed to St. Jude’s; I already told them I was going to raise the money,” he said. “I ended up running it virtually.”
He ran the 26.2 miles in Creve Coeur Park instead of New York and raised $3,560.
In 2021, he ran the New York City Marathon in-person, again raising $3,560.
His next race is the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 9.
He has set a goal to raise $3,000.
“For whatever reason, if you don’t raise the amount they charge your credit card,” he said. “You’re committed. I mean knock on wood, I hit it every year.”
Boxdorfer said after the Chicago marathon, he wants to run a 50-mile ultramarathon.
He said his ultimate goal is to run all the major marathons in the world, including Boston, London, Berlin and Tokyo.
Judith Bailey of Arnold, a Woodridge art teacher, said she finds Boxdorfer’s running journey inspirational.
“He has hooked a lot of his colleagues into either getting back into doing races or has kind of introduced them to the races, and it’s pretty incredible,” she said.
“Actually, he hooked me about four or five years ago. I started doing or getting back into the races because of Nate.”
Bailey said she has donated to his fundraising efforts and ran a 10K with Boxdorfer’s wife, Kim, in 2019 while he ran the marathon.
“He’s definitely very passionate about it and (Woodridge coworkers) just want to make sure we give him as much support as we possibly can,” Bailey said.
Boxdorfer and his wife have been married for eight years and have one son, Carter, 6 months.
Boxdorfer said he often uses a running stroller so his son can be part of his running journey.
“When he was a tiny, tiny baby, I set up a bassinet right next to my treadmill,” Boxdorfer said.
Longer races
Boxdorfer also has run two longer races to keep in shape.
In July 2021, he ran a six-hour ultramarathon called “Get Your Butt Kicked on Route 66,” held in Route 66 State Park in Eureka, running 27.4 miles during the event.
In April, he ran the Ozark Foothills 50K, which was 32 miles long.
Anyone interested in helping Boxdorfer reach his goal for the Chicago Marathon may donate through his Facebook page “Nathaniel’s Fundraiser for 2022 Bank of America Chicago Marathon.”