Jia Lu remembers being taunted as a child for bringing a juice box to school. “In Germany,” she recalls, “if you brought juice boxes to school you would get teased. If you didn’t bring recycled paper to write on, you’d get teased.” This kind of environmentally conscious upbringing is what led Lu and seven others to organize TERRA 10K-a 10 kilometre run to raise funds for local and national environmental awareness campaigns.
An acronym for “Toronto’s Environment Run to Raise Awareness,” TERRA is the brainchild of U of T International Relations student Lu, who was eager to try and combine healthy living with the promotion of a healthy planet.
“There’s all sorts of runs,” says Lu. “There’s pretty much one run every single day-when it’s not winter-in Toronto. All of them tend to be for cancer or multiple sclerosis, and what not, but there isn’t one for the environment. We thought, let’s have a run for the environment, but make it digestible for everybody-not a hardcore tree-hugger kind of deal. I’m sure everyone wants to live a healthy lifestyle.”
Fair enough, and with today’s emphasis on exercise and fitness, it shouldn’t be hard for TERRA 10K to secure an enthusiastic crowd of runners and supporters. The run will follow a beautiful 10 kilometre circuit around Toronto Island. For those who are not cardio-inclined, there is also a five kilometre walk option.
So far, two heavy-hitters in the environmental community are already on board to help launch the inaugural run. The United Nations Association (Toronto Region Branch), and the famed ecologist David Suzuki’s Foundation are both lined up as TERRA sponsors. The money raised by the run will be split evenly between the two organizations.
“The environment is a huge deal for the UN,” says Lu, “but we wanted to bring it down to earth. You always hear things about the UN and it always seems so far away and unrelated to us. Like with the Kyoto protocol-the question is what can we do as people? For a city like Toronto, there’s not a lot of awareness about this kind of thing. We wanted to have an event that everyone could participate in.”
The aim of TERRA 10K is to give regular schlubs the opportunity to make a difference in the environmental community. And why not burn carbs and tighten buns at the same time?
The UN Association will use the money raised by the run to increase its environmental education and awareness programs in high-schools and workshops nation-wide.
The David Suzuki Foundation also has lofty plans for its share of the TERRA earnings. All of the money raised will be funnelled into the “Nature Challenge”-a program that challenges people to do small things in their everyday lives that could make a difference.
“It’s something anyone can do,” says Lu. “You don’t have to go sit in a tree for a year or chain yourself to big tractors-whether it’s don’t eat meat once a week, put in an efficient lightbulb, or turn down the thermostat. Anyone can do it.”
One sticking point so far for TERRA’s organizers has been the issue of corporate support. Lu and her fellow coordinators are adamant about maintaining a “green” mandate, and are looking to avoid attracting sponsors that might not be so earth-friendly. “We’re not trying to discriminate,” says Lu, “but we are trying to be selective. We’re not going to pick McDonald’s or Shell Oil or something like that. We’re hoping, for example, to get a Honda Insight sent to the run location.” The Insight is a new vehicle that runs on gasoline-electric hybrid technology.
At the end of the day, TERRA 10K will reward its participants by not only booting them into shape, but also by giving them a glimmer of hope that they too can make a difference.
The TERRA 10K run will be held on World Environment day, June 5, 2004. If interested, go to www.terra10k.com for more details.
