“You need not change your world in a day. Start off small. The thousand mile journey begins by taking the first step. We grow great by degrees. Small daily steps lead to stunning results over time” - Robin Sharma
The dream to inspire through running first landed on Matt’s shoulders while on a flight to Detroit in late 2006. At 28,000 feet above the ground, he received answers to questions he’d been asking since seeing his childhood hero, Terry Fox running his marathon of Hope across Canada.
Together with his friend and run partner, Steph Tait, they decided to inspire an entire continent and realize this dream in a way that had never been done before; by running around it. They founded Run for One Planet (http://www.runforoneplanet.org/) and for the next 18 months trained their bodies, built the team and raised sponsorship support. On May 4th 2008, they hit the ground running and the first of many steps. In 369 days they ran 11,000 miles across Canada and around the perimeter of America, to inspire a continent of kids big and small, to make one small change for the health of our Planet, one step at a time.
“We completed the final marathon on May 8th, 2009 and realized a long held dream, to be escorted across Vancouver’s famous Lions Gate Bridge under full police escort. The Mayor of Vancouver proclaimed May 8th as Official Run for One Planet Day in the City of Vancouver and told us we’d become the first couple to run around North America. We smiled, unlaced our 30th pair of destroyed Asics running shoes and totalled the tour like this:”
11,000 miles ran
420 marathons collectively
3 million calories consumed and burned
22 million, four thousand steps taken collectively
369 days on the Run for One Planet highway
35,000 kids reached
220 school and community presentations
$130,000 raised for the “R41P Kids” fund which grants kids “green dreams”. (http://www.runforoneplanet.org/donate.php)
Cleaned our beloved eco-home-on-wheels, Racy Verna. (http://www.runforoneplanet.org/erv.php)
Reflected on the hundreds of “Local Hero’s” who helped us move forward, including our 30+ army of volunteers; the “Run For One Planet Dream Team”
Then…. we took a long nap”
Here’s the tour’s Top 10 Action Steps. We ask you to choose ONE, committing to a single, powerful change, for the health of our beautiful blue Planet.
- Eat Local and Organic
- Turn off your car
- Eliminate plastic bags
- Use green cleaners
- Turn off the lights
- Turn off the taps
- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (from a 6th grader in Texas “Re-Think”)
- Compost
- Bring your own bottle
- Teach your children well (R41P kids magic tip #10: “kids teach your teachers and your parents… well’er”)
Here’s the 8 minute tour video to share a little of the magic we got to experience- enjoy:)
