Tag Archives: Team World Vision

Running from Apathy

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rural school
Image by crossn81 via Flickr

Today, Dec 1 is World AIDS Day.  You really should read this article about hope from Relevant

I left Desalech with an amazing sense of hope, and also urgency. She had seen her life turn around. But I could only imagine how many other women there were like Desalech who desperately needed help: life-saving help.

I had traveled to Ethiopia with a couple of other World Vision staff who worked solely with Team World Vision. They basically recruited people to run marathons in honor of people like Desalech in Africa, raising awareness and asking for financial support in the process. This marathon thing, to me, was an absolutely ridiculous idea.

In seventh grade, I was the girl who faked being sick to avoid running one mile in gym class. Chalk it up to all the classic reasons: self-consciousness, fear of failure, embarrassment. I dreaded that one mile so much that I probably wasn’t actually faking sickness at all. The thought of running for even 10 (OK, maybe 14) minutes, coupled with the resulting humiliation of it all, was enough to make me physically ill. Let’s just say that my aversion to sports did not improve throughout high school. Or college.

Be sure to read the whole article.

[tags] Relevant, World AIDS Day, World Vision [/tags]

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Thank You From Zambia

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I know I have thanked you several times for helping me raise over $2,000 for Team World Vision while running my first marathon. But I can’t say thank you enough!

This video was created by Team World Vision to thank all of the runners and supporters who help make this year’s “event” so successful:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5yA6etuuk4

Through the fundraising efforts of 1,000 runners (like me), we raised enough money to build 170 clean water wells and 2,500 sanitary latrines which will create a 75% reduction of waterborne diseases among children in Southern Zamiba.

Isn’t that exciting? I thought so and wanted to say thank you again for your support of my goals, but also for the children in Zambia.

[tags] Team World Vision, World Vision, Zambia, Wells [/tags]

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October Highlights

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This really should be titled “Marathon Highlights” since most of the month this year and last was talking about marathons!  Did I talk too much about it this year? Well it was a major highlight of the year and I spent plenty of weeks training, thinking, and focusing on it (read: obsessing), so you shouldn’t be too surprised.

Last Year though I didn’t talk too much about marathons, but I did share my experiences volunteering at the Chicago Marathon. Here are pictures I took after I was done passing out water.  I wrote about some Last Minute Marathon Tips.  Maybe I should have read these before my race! Following Chicago there was a lot of talk about Race Directors and marathon planning, so I highlighted a blog directed at Race Directors from the Association of Running Event Directors.

Continuing with the marathon theme I gave a preview of the Men’s Marathon Olympic Trials at New York and wrote about the Marathon Challenge, a PBS special.

I ran the Turn Up the Volume 4Mi race in Indianapolis and felt really good! I began tapering for my Indianapolis Half Marathon, which didn’t go very well for me.

I shared some highlights from a very funny post about t-shirt etiquette.  Bad Ben posted it at his site: Bad Ben’s Ramblings which I highlighted.  I ended the month on a somber note talking about Indiana’s high obesity rate.

This year my marathon was October 5, so I laid out my race plan and graded it afterwards. I did write a more traditional race review for you before bombarding you with a lot of random charts and graphs.  In the following weeks I shared some of my thoughts on post-marathon life, a little like depression and generally lacking motivation.  In a final hat tip to the marathon I did some linking to other people’s thoughts and impressions.

I wrapped up my Team World Vision fundraising by talking about my experience in South Africa and finally wrapping it all up. It is so exciting to have surpassed the fundraising goal of $2,000.  THANK YOU again to everyone who donated and supported me!

Ok, so there aren’t many non-marathon posts, but here they are: A look at eco-friendly gyms.  Protecting our ears from hearing loss by taking care of our buds. I submitted that post to the Running Carnival.  I thought these were 5 good tips for fall running.

Monthly Mileage –(as of 10/29)

Running – 75 miles

Biking – 90 miles

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World Vision Wrap-Up

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World Vision

Image via Wikipedia

I can’t say how thankful I am for everyone of you who supported me through the marathon and especially through my fundraising efforts for Team World Vision.  It was a humbling honor to run on behalf of my African friends and to share their stories with you over the last months.

It really has been fun to combine two of my passions into such a powerful event.  Thank you! I am excited to announce that as of writing this post, we have raised $2,086 for Team World Vision!!! This exceeded the $2,000 goal!!  Thank you!!

Below you will find a list of the posts where I shared about my passion for Africa and my experiences there.  You can also read all of the posts by clicking on this link.  In the order they were published:

That pretty much sums up Team World Vision.  I’m not sure when/if they actually close down the fundraising page, but you still have the opportunity to give today.  Thank you!!

Team World Vision

Team World Vision is a fund raising arm of the organization which uses ordinary people like me, to get ordinary people like you involved in ending poverty and injustice across the world. I have decided to commit the 26.2 miles of my first marathon to the memory of and in honor of the children I have met during my international travels. I can’t remember all of their names, but I have many pictures and stories.

On the right side of my blog there is a widget that will allow you to support me during this race or you can visit this secure page. I have set a goal of raising $2,000 which will help children have a chance at living to become adults across Africa.

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Reflections on South Africa

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I couldn’t find my journal from South Africa, so I’ll show you some pictures and tell a brief story about each.  This might be more enjoyable for you anyway!

In South Africa we spent a lot time in the classrooms at various schools. We split up into small groups and “taught” various classes. We talked about goal setting, child abuse, HIV/AIDS, drugs and other topics before opening the floor for questions they had for us. Many of these related to the USA, 9/11 (we went January of 2002), what we liked about South Africa, and more. This is a picture from one of the classrooms.

At a different school a group of kids really wanted me to go to the store with them. Ultimately, I relented and we walked a short distance to a “convenience” store. The big draw for the students was an arcade game. I can’t recall the name of the game, but I remember the shock I felt when I realized that these students were giving up their lunch money to play this stupid game. It was upsetting to me, but ultimately it was the student’s decision to make that choice. But why store owner would you do that to kids?

We did have time to stop and reflect on what we had experienced as well as the opportunity for some “touristy” type activities.  This included a little safari one day where we spent some time driving around in Safari style trucks, equipped with an elephant gun, just in case!  This was on of the giraffes we saw. We also saw some elephants, a lion, lots of warthogs, and some random other animals.

One week was spent in the northern part of South Africa, near the Botswana border. For the most part we ended up spending a large chunk of the week playing with kids. We spent time playing soccer with some older kids and visited a drop-in center for street children. These children had no place to go and couldn’t afford school.

The drop-in center provided food and structure for them. Staff would teach and counsel them, while helping them overcome their addictions. Most of these kids were addicted to sniffing glue – it helps take the edge off the hunger pangs.
We spent a few hours playing and interacting with them, before we were supposed to go to a village. As we were preparing to leave the center director decided that his kids should come with us and had them all get in the back of his pick-up truck. He then offered for a few of us to ride with them. We did and had the opportunity to interact with the kids a little more directly.

This is a group of villagers from the village we visited after the drop-in center. We spent a few hours playing soccer and interacting with some of the village youth. As we were leaving we saw this large group of villagers loading up a wagon with their personal belongings. Through our interpreters we discovered they were preparing to go out to the fields for a month. They were leaving their homes for a month to try to scrape out a living.
They were very enamored by us and wanted us to hold the babies, thinking we would be able to magically heal and bless them just by our touch. We struggled to communicate with them but some of the group was able to interact.

This last picture is a random village that we drove by. I put it here to show you some of the conditions that people live in around the world.It was seeing places like this that rocked my world and opened my heart to those who have nothing. Before this trip I knew I wanted to be involved with changing communities, but thought that meant the inner-city or rural American communities.

After seeing places like this I realized that there is something bigger that needs to be done around the world so that the poorest of the poor can have even the basic things that we take for granted.

Team World Vision

Team World Vision is a fund raising arm of the organization which uses ordinary people like me, to get ordinary people like you involved in ending poverty and injustice across the world. I have decided to commit the 26.2 miles of my first marathon to the memory of and in honor of the children I have met during my international travels. I can’t remember all of their names, but I have many pictures and stories.

On the right side of my blog there is a widget that will allow you to support me during this race or you can visit this secure page. I have set a goal of raising $2,000 which will help children have a chance at living to become adults across Africa.

[tags]  World Vision, Team World Vision, South Africa, Africa[/tags]

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