Give It Up for Jon Ruyan
Eagles tackles a terrific fundraiser, and he’s happy to do it.
  Jon Runyan, twice a Super Bowl participant in the pros, knew how to react when hundreds of thousands of people cheered him on.
  But nothing touched him like the response he got from a couple of kids in a far more serious setting, a hospital ward.
  The dependable Runyan, who has started 176 straight National Football League games at right tackle, first for the Tennessee Titans, and since 2000 for the Philadelphia Eagles, also is indefatigable about his commitment to charity.
  Runyan, 35, has honed that commitment in South Jersey, where he lives with wife Loretta and their three children in a custom, just-completed 13,000-square foot home in Mount Laurel. But his good works began quietly at a children’s hospital in Michigan.
  As a star player for the University of Michigan football Wolverines, he was only doing his duty by visiting local hospitals with teammates.
  But he says he was overwhelmed by the response he got from a couple of youngsters who were ailing. As he visited with them, their response to the time and attention of this 6-foot-7, 330-pound football star hooked him.
  “That started it,” says Craig Kaplan, Runyan’s manager and the very busy president of All-Star Promotion, the marketing, branding, and management agency based in the South Jersey region. “He feels he is in a position to give back, and he enjoys doing it.”
  “He does five or six acts of charity for every one you hear about.”
  The Philly Sports Fans Choice Awards heard about them all and voted Runyan its Humanitarian Award in 2006. Last year he picked up a similar honor from Philadelphia and South Jersey sportswriters.
  His range of charitable causes is as broad as the holes he opens for Brian Westbrook and other Eagles runners on Sunday afternoons, but he is focused on a cure for Alzheimer’s, which has taken a grandparent from both he and Loretta. Runyan serves as the honorary chairman for the Alzheimer’s Association of Delaware Valley.
  Runyan also has a knack for getting others involved, without even using a forearm shiver. He convinced general manager John Goodwin to donate Ramblewood County Club in Mount Laurel as the site for the annual “Jon Runyan Score for the Cure Golf Outing” that benefits prostate cancer. The event has collected almost $300,000 in three years.
  He also will participate in the June 23 Leukemia & Lymphoma Society fund raiser at Scotland Run Golf Club in Williamstown.
Other events and charity work include:
  ~ For the fourth straight year, Runyan will host the “Bowl With the Birds” bowling event to raise money for Alzheimer’s.
  ~ Serves as a local liaison for both the Police Athletic League and its Children’s Miracle Network, and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
  ~ Received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Variety, the children’s charity serving the Delaware Valley, in February of 2006 for his dedication to the cause.
  ~ Is the co-chair of the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Texas Gulf Coast Chapter of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.
  ~ Annually hosts the New Jersey National Guard’s “State Family Readiness Council Gala and Dinner Dance.” As part of that program, annually hosts troops to a Thanksgiving Day feast at a local restaurant.
  Runyan also is developing a career in broadcasting, with radio shows on WIP and WXTU, and television appearances on Comcast SportsNet.
  He and his family are settled in South Jersey now, and plan to stay in Mount Laurel far beyond his playing career, polishing his media credentials and continuing his ubiquitous fund-raising appearances.
  “He loves to help people,” says Kaplan. “I think Jon’s favorite thing might be when he auctions himself off for different charity events. What do you get if you bid the highest for Jon Runyan? You get a nice day of golf with him. You can bring a friend.
  “And he’ll even pick up the tab for lunch.”