Regional community activists are looking
to fuse environmental education with exercise as the Friends of the W&OD
Trail join with local organizations and businesses to host Northern Virginia's
first "green" run on July 28 on the W&OD Trail in Vienna.
The Friends
of the W&OD 10K race on the trail from Church Street in downtown Vienna to
Hunter Mill Road and back will follow a series of professional lectures and
presentations for those looking to learn about protecting the
environment.
"Everyday you read something new about the environment and
more people than ever before want to do something about it," said race organizer
Jay Jacob Wind. "People want to learn about what they can do to help out, and
this offers them that opportunity."
A mixed event strategy, the race and
informational resource looks to bring like-minded community members together to
unite for a common goal, said Wind. The same strategy has been used before by
co-sponsor, the Arlington Cooperation Foundation, to promote personal health and
peace in various runs through Northern Virginia, he added.
By attracting
running enthusiasts throughout the area, Wind and the other event organizers are
hoping to bring more attention to environmental issues.
"We have the
opportunity here to teach several hundred people to protect the environment that
they run in," he said. "It's important for people to understand that if we need
to step in and make a difference ... and we're also capable of affecting great
change."
A SYMPOSIUM of presentations and lectures from environmental
professionals and community leaders entitled "College of the Environment - Green
University" will set the event apart from other regional races, Wind
said.
Speaking of the history of environmental government regulation will
be Falls Church resident Gary Baise, who was the chief of staff for the
Environmental Protection Agency when it was established by President Richard
Nixon.
"Any time you're dealing with an issue as all-encompassing as the
environment ... it's important to have some history of where we were and how we
got to where we are today," said Baise. "Hopefully after [attendees] hear some
of the history, it can help them and inspire them to get more active to do more
for the environment in their community."
In line with the message from Al
Gore's Oscar-winning documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" will be an official
showing of the slide show, presenting some of his information about climate
change. Trained personally by Gore to deliver the slide show will be Bethesda
resident, psychiatrist and former Maryland Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Lisa
Van Susteren.
"What is good about this slide show is that it directly
presents people with the numbers and the data," said Van Susteren. "By seeing
that data right there in front of them ... it really can help them to see what
we are confronted with."
PACKAGING THE EVENT around a run on the W&OD
Trail has been key to raising awareness of the environment while showcasing an
example of the beauty of nature, Wind said.
"You have this long swath of
fragility right in the middle of this very urban and suburban area of Virginia,"
Wind said of the 40-mile long trail, which is classified as state parkland. "To
see that while running after learning all about the environment should be very
inspirational."
Runners are typically a perfect crowd to attract to
causes like protecting the environment, Van Susteren said.
"I think there
is a certain amount of awareness and discipline that is inherent in the type of
person who is a runner," she said, "and those are the types of people we want to
be attracted to protecting the environment."