Runner in Boston Marathon raising money for foundation of Sandy Hook father after suicide

A man is running the 2019 Boston Marathon to honor the father of a Sandy Hook shooting victim who died in an apparent suicide last month.

Dan Friedman has no personal connection to Jeremy Richman, the father of 6-year-old Avielle Richman, who was killed in the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., but told ABC News that his death deeply impacted him.

{mosads}”I just want this to be in honor of Jeremy, in honor of Avielle, in honor of everybody that was effected at Sandy Hook and afterward,” Friedman, 30, said. “And all the various kind of tragedies where people have suffered so senselessly.”

Richman was found dead on March 25 from an apparent suicide, according to the Newtown Police Department.

Friedman is raising money for the The Avielle Foundation, which was created after the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

Friedman told ABC that he’s “just blown away by the support” his fundraising effort has gotten.

The race is “not about us,” he stressed. “What we’re doing is one small gesture for a much larger and important goal.”

Twenty children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School by gunman Adam Lanza on Dec. 14, 2012.

A motive was never determined for the 20-year-old, who fatally shot himself after the attack.