Huffington Magazine Issue 11 | Page 83

CARRIE HILL PHOTOGRAPHY Exit proudly—they were brothers, after all. The clinking followed him along the way, all one hundred miles. Smith’s run this past Memorial Day was the second his organization, Alwaysbrothers.org, had established for the benefit of the bereaved families of fellow marines who had died in combat. On May 26th, Smith, the president of Always Brothers, along with core members and the residents of various communities along the trail, ran one hundred miles for the families of the Lima Company, a re- GREATEST PERSON OF THE WEEK serve Marine battalion stationed in Columbus, OH, which lost 22 Marines and one Navy Corpsman KIA in Iraq in 2005. All the proceeds from the run went to the children the marines left behind, with the hopes of helping them pay for expenses such as school. “Everyone is thankful and everyone’s appreciative but sometimes just saying ‘thank you for your service’ to a guy just isn’t enough,” says Smith. WHAT IS ALWAYS BROTHERS? Always Brothers began after Smith ran the 2010 Marine Corps marathon in Captain Tyler Swisher’s memory, in combat boots no HUFFINGTON 08.26.12 Runners and supporters posing for a team photo at finish line of the Lima Company run.