April 2009 Archives

Hand painted signs lead the way to the shaded opening of the Sligo Creek trail that provides a welcome escape to the busy six lane University Boulevard that rushes by. A chalked in welcome greets walkers, runners, and bikers alike who have gotten themselves out of bed at 9:30 on a Saturday morning.
A few feet up the rail sits an exuberant group of teenagers behind long tables bursting with hand painted T-shirts, pamphlets, and cut up fruit. All the makings of an excellent charity run.
This is the second year that the eight juniors from Montgomery Blair High School, Claire Baldwin, Lauren Poor, Lucy Barr, Lauren Teixeira, Maddy Ruvolo, Lily Felsenthal, Richard Higgins, and Samir Hazboun, have put together the run. "Run for Darfur" benefits, you guessed it, victims of the Darfur Genocide by raising both money and awareness to help end the violence and conflict that has been going on for several years.
The event was similar to the previous year's charity run, with only a couple improvements. Most significantly, this year the run was not in coordination with any school project, but the teens completed the project without out any adult help or encouragement. "It was harder this year because it wasn't a school project," Felsenthal affirms. "We had to do it ourselves, which required a lot more discipline, but it was much more gratifying in the end."
The lack of adult supervision did not affect the events success in any way. "We had about the same number of people come out, but our pre-registration was higher, which was awesome," Felsenthal states.
The event was much the same as last year, with participants walking, running, or biking along a five kilometer out and back stretch of Sligo Creek. Along the beautifully shaded trail were printed flyers that proclaimed sobering facts about Darfur such as the death and displacement rates, which urged participants to run faster and stuff the donation box fuller.
And then of course, there were the infamous T-shirts. Free with the $20-$30 admission charge, the shirts were even more extraordinary than last year, hand stenciled with different faces and swirls of green paint. Every shirt is emblazoned with a bold "Darfur Run 09" that proclaims to the community the integrity of the wearer.
After the event the group sits in a circle congratulating each other on the success of raising over $1315 in just three and a half short hours. "We got over 60 people, whoo-hoo!" everyone cheers.
The future of the run is somewhat unstable, however, as the group will be battling such challenges as college applications and senior year, but everyone is hopeful that the Darfur runs will continue. One thing is for certain however, and that is that this run is the most unique and creative charity event that Takoma Park and Silver Spring has seen.