Temple grad becomes human billboard to pay off student debt

Jason Kasher is running to get away from $30,000 worth of student loans.

“What I created is ‘Paid to Run.’ How it works is, every day starting Sept. 1 for the next 183 days, I’m going to act as a personal living billboard,” explained Kasher.

Kasher graduated from Temple with a degree in marketing last year. Although he found a job at a logistics firm in Carlisle, Pa., it wasn’t exactly what he wanted to do, so he quit.

To pay off his remaining loans, Kasher will run 1,000 miles across the country. Each day he’ll dedicate a six-mile run to a company sponsor and wear their logo.  

“The run itself is very interesting, it’s the journey, it’s the excitement,” said Kasher. “But what really draws people in is that they can follow me.”

Kasher says he has sold a few hundred dollars in ad space so far.

While he will run 1,000 miles, he will also drive to different locations, so it’s not a simple straight line journey.

“I didn’t really have any real destination that I wanted to jog to,” he explains.

Kasher says he’s committed to running six miles a day, no matter the weather conditions. He calculated that it will take him six months to run the 1,000 miles.