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Support Asher Lipman, the High Five Guy, on his New York City Marathon run by making a donation to Comfort Zone Camp.

Asher Lipman: The High five guy

This November marks the 40^th anniversary of the New York City Marathon. Race organizers expect that at least $20 million dollars will be raised for charity. One runner has a very unique way of raising money during the race. Asher Lipman is a 43-year-old father of two children. This will be his sixth marathon and he’s going to harness the power of the millions of people who watch the NYC Marathon to help raise money for a special group of kids. He will be wearing a specially designed glove that counts the number of high fives he gets from spectators as he runs by. He did this several years ago and got 17,000 high fives and raised $10,000 for Comfort Zone Camp.

Why?

Asher ran his first marathon at the age of 35; actually, he started running when he was 34. He returned to NYC after having lived in several other cities and was meaning to get in touch with a close childhood friend, Jimmy Gartenberg. Unfortunately, that never happened. Jimmy died on 9-11.  

It made Asher want to do something special, something that was New York, something that would remember his times with his childhood friend and celebrate Jimmy’s memory.   The 2001 NYC Marathon Sunday was the quintessential NYC fall day, bright, crisp, and the leaves in full bloom and Asher thought to himself that he would run a marathon. He began training and the following year ran the 2002 NYC marathon.   

The marathon is truly a special New York moment, where neighborhoods and people come together and root for complete strangers. It is a great moment and quite frankly you feel like a rock star. People chant your name, cheer you on and high five you through all the boroughs. As he finished, exhausted but full of adrenaline, he knew it was the spectators and their involvement in the journey of the runners that kept them all going. He began to think to himself what if he could channel that rare and special enthusiasm to raise some money. In thinking of a charity, he wanted to pick something which he knew would have a direct impact. He did not have kids at the time but could not stop thinking of Jimmy Gartenberg and his family. Jimmy had a little girl when he died. Asher’s wife, a senior producer at CNN, had produced a piece on Comfort Zone Camp, a bereavement camp for children—the largest in the country. It helped many kids who had lost a parent on 9-11.   It was an “a ha” moment. His goal was to run the marathon and somehow count the high fives he got while running. People would pledge money on the number of high fives he got. The money would go to Comfort Zone Camp.   The technology was rudimentary, he had a glorified mouse attached to his hand connected by wires to a palm pilot but it worked and he had over 17,000 high fives.    He raised $10,000 for the camp.  

It was the most amazing, once in a lifetime experience. After that, he thought my days of running the marathon were over. He was starting a family and finding the time to train was difficult.  

That all changed last year when Asher’s father passed away. It was very sudden and quick. Asher’s son was barely 2 months old and his daughter was not quite 3 years old. He was shocked, stunned and grief stricken.   He certainly did not know how to tell his daughter that she would never see her grandfather again. Asher turned to Lynne Hughes at Comfort Zone Camp who guided him through the process and it helped. The conversation also rekindled in his mind the fantastic work that Lynne and the others are doing at Comfort Zone Camp.

Having to deal with the loss of a parent himself as well as dealing with how to tell his 3-year-old daughter about losing her beloved Zayda, motivated him to run the Marathon again for his father and for the kids at Comfort Zone Camp.      His hope is that the more people who know about it...the more who will pledge money and the more money he will raise.  Some people sponsor him per high five or just a bulk donation for if he finishes.  Either way, the kids win.

You too can help support Asher by making a special donation to Comfort Zone Camp.