In the months leading up to the Boston Marathon, Alex Advani has faced many setbacks, including a knee injury and a demanding work schedule, that only allowed him to log eight runs. He is, by his own cheerful admission, nowhere near as prepared as he would have hoped.

And yet, Advani has already reached his goal of fundraising $10,000 for the Boston Children’s Museum. Advani’s methods have been unconventional, yet innovative: throwing a fundraising party, printing and handing out QR codes and texting nearly every person he’s ever met.

For the third-year business administration major, running the marathon won’t just mean crossing the finish line; it will mean repaying the people and the place that played a formative part in his upbringing. 

At the Boston Children’s Museum, located in the Seaport District and opened in 1913, there is a play structure called the New Balance Climb. It’s not the most conspicuous, as it rises several stories high and is almost always packed with energetic children.. For Advani and his twin brother, Eliot, it was the first stop on every single visit growing up. 

“It was a place where you would learn and talk to more kids, be more social, and it never felt like you were being forced to do anything,” he said of the museum. 

As a Massachusetts native, Advani has early memories at the museum as his mother, Helen Rosenfeld, serves as a trustee. Rosenfeld’s philanthropic involvement  gave Advani an early window into the world of non-profit organizations and civic engagement.  

As an independent, not-for-profit institution, the museum relies heavily on donations from its supporters to assist with maintenance of facilities and sustaining its goals of fostering creativity and instilling an appreciation of the world and a love for learning in children. 

The overwhelming response and support for the fundraising were a surprise to him. His expectations from his friends were modest, expecting donations of around $20, but his friends blew him out of the water, donating hundreds of dollars to his campaign. 

“Just the fact that they kind of care enough to support me for a cause that they might not even know too much about,” he said. “I really appreciate all those people showing up for me.”

His outreach and persistence were ultimately successful, as Advani hit his fundraising goal a week before the race.

Until recently, the marathon was not at the forefront of Advani’s mind. In January, he completed a marathon in Italy with his brother with no immediate plans for another race. 

”I ran a marathon a few months ago with my brother, and that was just one where you only had to pay a couple hundred bucks and you got to run,” he said. “I didn’t really have any plans to run the Boston Marathon. I was kind of done.”

Then, the museum came calling. When he was told by his mother the museum needed a face to represent them at one of the county’s biggest sporting events, the choice was clear. 

“It was more the fact that it was for the Boston Children’s Museum that I was doing it,” Advani said. “That’s really the only reason.”

Eliot, who ran the Florence marathon alongside him four months before Boston, was not surprised by the decision. 

“That’s just who he is,” Eliot said. “He’s the type of person who always wants to get as many people involved as possible.” 

Training for a marathon while on co-op, nursing a knee injury and managing different side projects was a challenge, Advani said. 

“It’s tough right now. I have not been running very much, to be honest,” he said. 

Advani’s approach has been unconventional but methodical. He identified days with lower workloads, such as Thursdays and Fridays, and used more of his free time to do longer runs, which sometimes stretched up to two and a half hours. His shorter runs could be done more often, he said, as they fit into his  busy days. 

Despite the scheduling challenges, Advani said he loves to run for a very simple reason: It provides a nice distraction from responsibilities and workloads.  

“The one thing I really like about running is that your mind can just wander. You don’t have to focus on anything specific,” Advani said. “It’s a good time to kind of relax and think. Whereas throughout the day, you’re always worried about some work or something you have to do.”

Shortly after committing to run, Advani attended an event tied to the Museum’s Helping Hands campaign, the museum’s annual fundraising event, honoring the generosity and contributions of community members during the COVID-19 pandemic. Advani said being a part of the event and watching the work of volunteers and staff banished any doubts that he may have had about running the marathon. 

“Being there, helping out, seeing how enthusiastic all the volunteers were — none of whom are paid, obviously — and how happy the kids were and how happy their parents were to take them to something that was so just happy, that’s kind of what motivated me the most,” he said.