Running for clean water
Members of the Blue Planet Run relay will pass through Lawrence on Saturday
The international relay raises money to ensure that people around the world have access to safe drinking water.
By Sarah Neff (Contact)
Friday, August 17th, 2007
A team of runners in an around-the-world relay promoting safe drinking water will pass its baton in Lawrence on Saturday. The team, a part of the Blue Planet Run relay, will make its exchange at 9 a.m. at the Wells Overlook County Park entrance.
The relay run will pass through Lawrence on its way to Kansas City. The 95-day run began in New York City on June 1. From there it went across the ocean to Europe, then to Russia, Mongolia, China, Japan and back to California. The run will end in New York City on Sept. 4 after making its way through the United States.
The Blue Planet Run is an international relay to raise money for the millions of people around the world who don’t have access to safe drinking water. Twenty athletes are participating in the event, and each runs 10 miles a day.
Mary Chervenak, 39, began running recreationally when she was in college. She said she decided to join the Blue Planet Run because of the challenge it presented. One of the highlights of the run was in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, she said.
“My shift started at 3:00 a.m. It was freezing cold and I was running knee deep in the sand,” Chervenak said. “Then the sun came up and the desert was probably a million different colors and I thought ‘Wow, who does this? Who gets to run in the desert and see this?’”
Chervenak visited countries with water problems as she trekked around the world.
She said when she was in Ireland there was a water war and farmers were diverting water because of the shortage.
Chervenak said she also stayed near Lake Baikal while she was in Russia. Although it’s the largest freshwater lake in the world, Chervenak said it wasn’t accessible to the people because the infrastructures beneath had crumbled.
“In Mongolia we had seen people walking miles to get water,” Chervenak said.
The Dow Chemical Co. sponsors the Blue Planet Run. Nancy Fullerton, manager of corporate citizenship for Dow, said the run gives Dow the opportunity to apply its science and technology to the world’s challenges.
“This run is about providing safe drinking water to the more than 1.1 billion people who lack access,” Fullerton said. “One hundred percent of all individual donations will go directly to safe drinking water projects around the world.
More information can be found at www.blueplanetrun.org.
— Edited by Amelia Freidline
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