Fun Run!

So this morning was my very first run - the "Start to Sweat to Stop the Traffic" run to raise money and awareness for human trafficking. I had so much fun! I am definitely doing another run sometime. I felt so good afterward, part of which was the gorgeous blue sky and the other part was the adrenaline my body has been lacking from not getting exercise lately. Another part was that it was such a great cause and just amazing seeing all the people there to do their part.
I love the ladies in my "Stopping Traffick" group - there was 4 of us from the group, plus one friend of one of the girls - interesting fact was that Y (the friend) lived across the street from a lady who they busted last fall for running a brothel out of her home. That lady has been charged with human trafficking as well as running a bawdy house. Y said she felt naive about not having had a clue about this going on right across the street from her. We don't think about such things going on here in Canada, but they do, and we need to be aware so that we can fight it, together. But that is another post, which I am going to be doing. Just not today. :)
So I ran my 3 km loop with Y and T - they were so fun to run with, encouraging, slowed down a bit when I needed it. I had popped a rib out of place a couple of weeks ago and my intercostals had been giving me some grief, so the deep breathing needed for running was not happening. 3 kms was just the length I needed and the last 10:1 we did was awesome. Y and T continued and did good. My good friend, A as well as J did amazing - they ran the 6 km really fast. I was so proud of us all.
I found out this evening that the run raised $12,693.50 with over 50 people on the course - that included kids and adults. My friends who organized the run had their 6 year old run and raise his own money - he apparently raised more than his Dad, who raised over $500. Awesome!

My First Run...a Great Cause

Over the past year I have been trying to be more aware - of myself and of the world in which we live. I have mentioned before on this blog about human trafficking and as a result of that day that I posted about in January I started a class at my Thursday ladies morning out that was called "Stopping Traffick". Until this year I really didn't know how prevalent in our world human trafficking was. Did you know that human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world? That the revenue for trafficking is somewhere between $5 and 9 billion USD per year (no one knows for sure as it is criminal activity, but that is the estimate)? Did you know that YOU can do something about it? That was the focus of the class that I was in - that we did not have to get sucked into the hopelessness of the situation. WE can do something, little things in our daily lives, big things if that is what we feel called to.
One thing that I have decided I CAN do is participate in a run on June 12th that is to bring awareness to this issue as well as raise money for organizations that work with people who have either been rescued from trafficking or people who are in danger of being trafficked. This ties into my being more aware of myself as I have begun to take better care of my body, as a result I now run. This will be my first run! The run is being organized by some friends of ours for a project their church is doing and all the money that is raised will go to 5 different local and international organizations - you can go here to check the projects out - like I said before, all the organizations either work with people who have been enslaved and rescued or works with people in danger of being trafficked to prevent it.
If I have made you uncomfortable, I know exactly how you feel and I have to keep telling myself that there is a reason for it - slavery of any kind is wrong. But we cannot stick our heads in the sand, WE have a chance to be modern day abolitionists. And if we join together, if we commit to learning what we can do, to supporting those who are working to end human trafficking, we CAN see the end to this. To that end I would like to accomplish two things with this run: Bring awareness to this subject and raise money to help the organizations working to fight it.
I don't ever use my blog for something like this, but if you would like to sponsor me in this event please let me know so I can arrange a tax receipt for you. Any donations of $10 or more will be issued a charitable tax receipt.