Runner from Kenya thankful for once in a lifetime opportunity at St. Benedict's

Jim Lambert for the StarLedger
At the end of the school year this past June, Edward Cheserek needed to get home for the summer. Short on bus money, Cheserek did what came naturally.

He ran.

He ran over steep mountains. He ran through a tropical rain forest. He ran across the rocky, muddy trails. He ran and ran and ran, stopping only to rest or take a quick drink from a river.
Eleven hours and some 60 miles later, he finally arrived at his family’s mud hut in Kenya.
Later that month, Cheserek left behind that same mud hut for his new high school. This time, there was a flight to New York and a car ride to Newark. At the end of his journey, Cheserek — with only the clothes on his back and an empty backpack — walked into a bright dormitory at the Leahy House on the campus of St. Benedict’s Prep.
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