{"id":444002,"date":"2010-03-18T15:45:00","date_gmt":"2010-03-18T19:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef0120a9506830970b"},"modified":"2010-03-18T20:01:41","modified_gmt":"2010-03-19T00:01:41","slug":"a-long-run-to-help-veterans-share-your-inspirational-l-a-marathon-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/444002","title":{"rendered":"A long run to help veterans. Share your inspirational L.A. Marathon stories"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a style=\"display: inline;\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Roxas\" border=\"0\" class=\"asset asset-image at-xid-6a00d8341c630a53ef01310fb756e6970c image-full \" src=\"http:\/\/latimesblogs.latimes.com\/.a\/6a00d8341c630a53ef01310fb756e6970c-800wi\" title=\"Roxas\"><\/img><\/a> <br \/><\/br><a href=\"http:\/\/latimesblogs.latimes.com\/lanow\/steve-lopez\/\" style=\"float: left;\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"TalkBackLopez_187x105\" border=\"0\" class=\"asset asset-image at-xid-6a00d8341c630a53ef0120a8d8b7ae970b \" src=\"http:\/\/latimesblogs.latimes.com\/.a\/6a00d8341c630a53ef0120a8d8b7ae970b-800wi\" style=\"margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px;\" title=\"TalkBackLopez_187x105\"><\/img><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>So you think you&#8217;re busy?<\/p>\n<p>Permanently disabled Iraq war veteran Mervin Roxas of Fullerton works as a life skills coach for\u00a0Easter Seals of Southern California daily from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Then the Marine veteran goes to Cal State Fullerton until 10 p.m., studying history while working toward a teaching degree. <\/p>\n<p>And, by the way, he&#8217;s training for Sunday&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/la-me-marathon-map-2010,0,3965166.htmlstory\" title=\"Interactive L.A. Marathon map\">L.A. Marathon<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Roxas lost his left arm in 2004 during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The roadside bomb that injured him also caused various facial injuries and left him with permanent scars. But he refuses to let any of that deter him from a planned career as a high school teacher. <\/p>\n<p>When a friend told him about an organization called U.S. Vets, he decided to run the marathon to raise awareness and funding for the organization, which provides housing and employment assistance for homeless veterans. <\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;d like to sponsor Roxas, go to <a href=\"http:\/\/firstgiving.com\/mervinroxas\">http:\/\/firstgiving.com\/mervinroxas<\/a>, and if you&#8217;d like to learn more about his story be sure to read my column in Sunday&#8217;s paper. <\/p>\n<p>And, in the comments below, please send along other inspirational stories related to the marathon. <\/p>\n<p>&#8212; Steve Lopez <\/p>\n<p><em>Photo credit: Steve Lopez \/ Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So you think you&#8217;re busy? Permanently disabled Iraq war veteran Mervin Roxas of Fullerton works as a life skills coach for\u00a0Easter Seals of Southern California daily from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Then the Marine veteran goes to Cal State Fullerton until 10 p.m., studying history while working toward a teaching degree. And, by the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4841,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-444002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4841"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444002\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}