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One of my best friends just climbed Mount Kilimanjaro while visiting Tanzania on a World Vision trip.
He recently through hiked the Appalachian Trail while raising money for World Vision.
July 2011
His post on Facebook read:
Top of Kilimanjaro, Highest point in Africa. 19,340 ft. It was cloudy. Couldn’t see a thing. Therefore, I’ll probably be doing it again at some point. I hope you’ll join me now that I know the way
They changes lives through clean water. We take water for granted. Support my Team World Vision.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxBPp9bzBvs
I run for a lot of reasons, but maybe the most important is so that children in Africa can have access to clean water. Will you support me and my team while we raise money for a water well.
I had a lot of fun cheering for all of the runners at this year’s Twin Cities Marathon. I wasn’t sure which of my friends were actually running, so I was caught by surprise as a few of them ran past. My wife said I looked scary, but I was dressed to be riding my bike on what started in the sub-40′s temp wise and warmed up quite nicely.
I met up with my friend Brad, who also happens to be the regional coordinator for Team World Vision. We did a lot of cheering for the Team World Vision folks. Brad brought a bullhorn which you heard right before mile 15 and 26. He was pretty funny on the bullhorn and most of the runners really enjoyed his cheering and antics. Several people requested he cheer for certain runners! At mile 26 a woman actually stopped running and did a somersault for us!
We cheered for pretty much everyone who went by and I cheered specifically for the friends that I saw, but the Team World Vision – orange jersey stands out and so I was able to get some good pictures of them. Below I created short video:
World Vision Runners - provided by DVA
Sunday was the inaugural 13.1 Minneapolis Half Marathon. Part of the event proceeds support World Vision‘s work with clean water in Kenya (the same as my fundraising).
The Inaugural 13.1® Minneapolis took more than 2,500 runners and walkers on a course filled with festivities, beautiful scenery and live entertainment. Kicking off near St. Anthony Main and ending at Nokomis Park, the half marathon and Karhu 5K, proved to truly be where the party met the pavement.Coming in first was Chad Ernst, 22, a lieutenant in the Marine Corps, with a time of 1:13:50. “I was pleased witheverything about the race, especially finishing first,” said Ernst, who has been running since he was ten years oldbut had never won a race this large. Other top male runners included Christian Mihelich, coming in second at1:16:32, followed closely by Jonathon Balabuck who finished the race at 1:17:38.The first female to cross the finish line was Leah Thorvilson, 31, with a time of 1:26:11. Thorvilson recentlyqualified for the Olympic trials marathon team and has run over 150 races in the past 3 years. “I’ve competedin a lot of races and was really impressed with this one, particularly the turn out for an inaugural race,” saidThorvilson.Charity partner Team WorldVision has raised more than $150,000 and expects to top the $200,000 mark overallfor the race. The money will go towards providing clean water for more than 68,000 children and families and90,000 livestock in Kenya, Africa.
Taken from the official release. Full results can be found here.
I’ve been busy and haven’t done a very good job of promoting my fundraising efforts for Water Projects in Kenya. Nevertheless, families need clean access to water throughout the world. Can you imagine not having clean water? You couldn’t wash your dishes, laundry, or even get a drink. You could wash your hair but it wouldn’t be soft and you’d need more than conditioner to make it look good.
What would you do?
We turn on the faucet and clean water comes out. Occasionally, during the snow melt in Minneapolis our water has some weird smells to it and tastes a little odd, but it is still safe to drink. We snuff our noses and buy bottled water. Some people don’t have that choice. They spend hours each day to get water that we’d refuse to drink.
We can change that.
Watch this video and consider making a donation on my behalf for clean water in Kenya.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx-2UtqmjyY
According to the Science Museum of MN, the average American drinks 26 gallons of bottled water a year. That is about 416 8oz bottles of water. That adds up to a lot money! World Vision estimates that it can dig a well for $13,700. If 33 people gave up bottled water for a year and gave that money to World Vision a village could have a healthy and safe water source!
Watch the video!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6gXggLwcgc
Find out more.
A deep well fitted with a hand pump can provide up to 2,800 gallons of safe water a day to benefit as many as 300 people! In many communities, clean water lies hundreds of feet below layers of hard rock. Children have no choice but to walk long distances to find water that is often dirty and disease-ridden. When our drilling teams strike water, entire villages erupt in celebration because a clean water source can cut a community’s child mortality rate by as much as half. – Well page
