Young Philanthropist on the Run
As a small boy, Benjamin DeWitt remembers waiting in food lines.
“I came from a very poor family,” Ben, now 28, recalls. “My parents worked very, very hard, but we still didn’t have much.”
When you are a child without, there are two ways to go when you grow up: follow the same hardscrabble pathway or pursue a yellow brick road.
Ben DeWitt, a true role model
Ben opted for a third road less traveled by. An avenue of philanthropy.
“I want to give other kids an opportunity for a better life than I had,” Ben avows. It is not lip service. He doesn’t just walk the talk, he runs it.
A standout distance runner at Buena High School (Class of 2004), Ventura College (2005-06) and Western State Colorado University (Class of 2008), Ben started his own business – Fast Green Running – four years ago to stage local races, including the“Mountains 2 Beach Marathon” from Ojai to Ventura.
The officially sanctioned course is remarkable for its scenic beauty and more remarkable for its gradual 700-foot decent to a sea-level finish near the Ventura Pier that has earned it the No. 2 ranking for runners trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon. As a result, runners from 44 states and seven countries are entered in this year’s fourth annual edition on May 25.
But the most remarkable thing about the “Mountains 2 Beach Marathon” (and accompanying 5K and half-marathon) is this: Ben donated $10,000 to local schools the first year; $15,000 the second year; and $38,000 last year, including $20,000 to Ventura Education Partnership.
“Ben is a source of pride for VUSD,” praises Trudy Arriaga, Superintendent for the Ventura Unified School District. “He is a product of VUSD and has the qualities that we dream to help produce as educators. Ben models service, generosity and wellness. Ben’s extraordinary example of giving back by paying it forward is an inspiration wrapped up in quite a gift!”
Ben’s gifts also benefit youth cross country and track programs throughout Ventura County as well as, fittingly, Ventura Food Share. His goal this year is to donate at least $45,000 total.
Understand, Ben is under no obligation to give from Fast Green Running’s bottom line. He could rightly pay himself a bigger salary instead of “paying it forward” from his own pocket.
“I’m more philanthropic with my life,” Ben explains. “I want to benefit the local community more than benefitting my personal piggybank.
“I live very modestly,” he expands, a ready smile flashing through his short-cropped ginger beard like sunshine through parting clouds. “I don’t need much to live. I’m not interested in vast amounts of wealth. I want to leave a legacy. On my deathbed, I want to look back on my life and feel that I did something worthwhile.”
Ben points out that some of his rewards cannot be monetized anyway, such as having runners tearfully thank him after realizing their dreams of clocking a Boston Marathon Qualifying time.
“I’d love for our community to come out on race day and be a part of the experience, kind of like they do in Boston,” encourages Ben, who was married on April 26 but has delayed his honeymoon until after the race. “Come cheer for the runners and perhaps you and your kids will be motivated to start running and getting more active too.”
Asked where his philanthropic calling originated, Ben shares a story when he was 16 and helping deliver toys and food in Santa Paula on Christmas Eve.
“We started at 4 a.m. and it was a cold, cold day,” he says. “I was in the bed of a truck and we’d stop at the houses and hand out boxes to parents. At one house on a dirt lot I remember thinking, ‘If I ever can someday, I want to help people.’ ”
He has made someday arrive early.
“The purpose of life is not to be happy,” Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote. “It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
Sounds exactly like “Benefactor Ben.”
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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com.
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