Chase Coleman, a 15-year-old boy with autism who is nonverbal, stopped running and left his cross country team after a stranger shoved him to the ground last month during a race in Rochester.
But his mother, Clarise Coleman, didn’t want him to give up running, so she and her family read every single message of support that came in for Chase after his story hit national news.
“There’s one mean person,” she said. “But there are thousands of thousands of nice people.”
Then, this weekend, nearly 1,000 people came to Syracuse to run with Chase in order to show him that support.
Wearing white shirts that read “Run with Chase,” the hundreds of supporters came to start the race at Corcoran High School. Over 600 people had registered, and even more showed up on Saturday morning when the race started.
“It just started out as his coach saying, ‘We just want to take him for a run,'” Clarise said. “It turned into an explosion of kindness, and we are so grateful for that.”
As for Chase, the young man wore a maroon shirt that said “run with me” and met them all at the track wearing brand new sneakers decorated with hearts and signatures from his team.