Toby's Blog
2012: Newsletter, our third.
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Shoes needed... please
SHOES, SHOES, SHOES..... CALL OUT FOR....
This is a New Year request, specifically to women's running clubs. Our number one need is good quality running shoes for ladies sized [average] US 7.5-9, or UK 6.5-7.5. That is not so say we don't need other sizes, but, but, but... if you are a club and can do a shoedrive that would be absolutely great.
People often email in and say "We can't afford the postage, can you?" Well the truth is we are asking the sender, as part of the donation to include postage. Over in Kenya we have to pay income tax on every pair received. Also we do not have any sponsor paying for this part of our program. So please consider doing a mini-fund raiser (bake sale, contribution box, raffle etc) to offset the costs.
For people wanting to do a mass collection we advise you choose soles4souls.org who are a much larger Org with finances for this operation. Our shoes go directly to small rural/slum events where Africans have to partake in an athletic event to receive a pair.
Just think, your one pair of shoes that you could send might change the life of one person, for the better... and the postage is probably the price of two Starbucks Lattes! Make Change
December in Kenya, lots going on
The Shoe4Africa IMAN cosmetics Make-Over program in Kibera
So this event was on Dec 19th... it seems like a year ago. We were honored that International model "Ajuma" - Kenya's most famous model who has worked with many of the world's top designers, and continues to work with Vivienne Westwood.
It was a whirlwind week because we took a photographer, Mike Kobal, with us and the first day he arrived were walking round Kibera visiting the homes of the ladies who were participating. The following day was the day of the project and that took all morning. Soonafter it was meeting with our lawyer before jumping in the car and driving up to Nakuru. Just before Nakuru the car had some issues and we literally limped into Lanet before having an art competition at the Patrick Chege Orphan's Memorial Home. Pictures from this event are coming soon!
The next day we were off again but had serious car issues again (same problem) getting up to Eldoret. The delay was meaning that were unable to change money and buy food for the planned next day's Feeding project. The journey took double the usual time, but we were really relieved to finally get there, to Iten... albeit many hours later. The car meanwhile was left at a garage in Eldoret. Thanks to Chris Cheboiboch who drove us to Iten.
The next day I had to visit the new director of the hospital I am partnering with, and that meeting went great - we also took a brief tour of the hospital. Then with the two Luke's (world champion Luke Kibet & Commonwealth Games Champ Luke Kipkosgei) we set off into deep deep countryside along with my friend Haron lagat, who lives in Lubbock Texas. And of course Siamanda who was on all and every project of course!!
Sponsored by board member Stacey Kelly and her husband Hal we had a fantastic event in the Marakwet district. The road was so bad that even one of our pick-ups, a Toyota landcruiser pick-up, got stuck in the mud!! Many hungry children were given big bags of Sugar and rice - commodities that they have been missing. This is also the area where Sally Kipyego lives, and we announced that a Shoe4Africa School will be built here in honor of how far Sally has traveled!
We got back dusty, dirty and tired. The next day I spent sorting out shoes to give out at the race and fixing race logistics. We started the registration for the race. With very little publicity 700 women turned up to register on the very first day. Wow, Siamanda and I had been making posters that we planned to put up around Iten but we did not even bother! Mike helped us sort the shoes - a very dirty job and one that took the whole morning. In the afternoon we went into Eldoret to meet Claudio Berardelli who helps me with S4A. Leaving his house were escaped a road accident by a fraction as a drunk driver sped through a junction weaving all over the road, ten seconds later he also nearly collided with a 10-ton truck. Eldoret had run dry of gasoline and it a gridlock town of narrow streets we dove from gas station to gas station till we finally managed, at the sixth place, to fill the tank. After a run in with a mercedes who was driving on the wrong side of the road, we finally got back to Iten to resume jobs with the race.
The next morning we finally managed to get a run in! A quick 30-minutes but it was great to stretch the legs. Soon after we jumped into the car to drive to the home of Janeth Jepkosgei where we have built our second school. We opened the school along with the Head of Athletics Kenya, Mr. Isaiah Kiplagat who came as he lives very close by, also a Bishop. Great to see many friends and nice to walk around the new school and think of the next generation of kids who will attend this establishment. Martin Lel, whom we built the first school for, also dropped by with many of the other elite athletes. Driving back to Eldoret we stopped at the hospital for Mike to capture some more pics. Our car was now working great! Thank goodness as we were driving distances a lot!
The next morning I was up at dawn, when I woke I could not remember what I had to do... was it a school to open, orphans art, people to feed, shoes to hand out? Serious, I was so so so tired and wiped out that it took moments before I clicked.... 'Ah yes, a race!' I jumped out of bed, loaded the car with all the T shirts, 1200, and drove to the registration place to set up a base, back for breakfast, back with the poles for the set up etc etc... the race was simply amazing and I was shocked how fast Joyce ran to win, if you could see the course - Gosh! The media were great and over the last few days had been providing me with lots of coverage on the TV and the newspapers. My fully charged phone battery went flat continually as my phone was ringing constantly... but there were no hitches - I have to say a big big thanks to the many volunteers who stepped up on race day to help, many of the international runners who were staying in Iten!
So that has been the last few days... now let me take a breath and drink my favorite Kenyan coffee --
Asante, thanks for being a friend of Shoe4Africa
Race Wrap - Dec 4th 2011
I was thinking how best to describe this... we put on this event with two weeks... I just received another check; it is shocking the financial goodwill and the people goodwill this little race made. two weeks - I did not think we'd fill up, most of the running community had signed up for the NYRR race 2km away with thousands of runners. I bugged and begged people, then I found myself emailing asking 'Do you really want to run as I have people imploring me for a spot in the race."
There was nothing fancy about the race, a simple 5km in a small park, but there was something magical about the day... My first example would be Jo Ann Mannino of the New York Flyers. Jo Ann emailed in the week and asked if she could help. She came early and was the go-to person for volunteers, taking charge, working hard and making all the volunteers at ease. Phew; what a great help. I come home and check the email, I see someone has made a three figure donation to Shoe4Africa a couple of hours after the race, I look.. it is Jo Ann!
That spirit happened just as I write this, another runner, Bernd Erpenbeck, just made a $200 donation, he came ran and then boom - wow. My friend Kerri-Ann McTiernan from F.I.T. came early too to help and she brought the staff from FIT, "When I told them, they all volunteered, wanted to help..." It is a wonderful thing, and a needed thing, I feel - and it is great when you can combine running for a good cause and having a good time, and the resounding feedback was people felt it.
****Please check out all the photos on facebook.com/shoe4africa****
Thanks also to Anil & Jerry from Urban Athletics, and to my board members Mason Haupt & Ilan Stern who were most active in getting the sponsors from the financial world. Gold level thanks to The men of Soros,Bank of America, and Barclays. Silver level thanks to Morgan Stanley.
Krystelle Buenafe, who is currently collecting running shoes for us, embodying the spirit of the day
Shoe4Africa race results 5km, Dec 5th 2011
Page 1
Shoes for Africa
Riverside Park, New York City
Sunday, December 4,2011
Timing by: SuperRaceSystems.com
Place Name Time Pace
===== ======================= ======= =====
1 Jason Lakritz 15:55 5:08
2 Daniel Renahan 16:09 5:12
3 Jason Holder 16:11 5:13
4 Joshua Lerch 16:23 5:17
5 Thomas Gatyas 17:01 5:29
6 Ed Stern 17:18 5:34
7 John Slosson 17:24 5:37
8 David Martinelli 17:31 5:38
9 Ilan Stern 17:32 5:39
10 Tim Outyas 17:33 5:39
11 Laurel Wassner 17:39 5:41
12 Gitani Mwangi 18:06 5:50
13 Charles Scherr 18:09 5:51
14 Dennis Chopkins 18:22 5:55
15 Jan Noordin 18:30 5:58
16 Kevin Beganics 18:35 5:59
17 Fiona Bailey 18:48 6:03
18 Jordan Antebi 19:05 6:09
19 Donald Faver 19:07 6:10
20 Brenda Green 19:20 6:14
21 James Redmond 19:33 6:18
22 Alex Stone 19:35 6:18
23 Filip Meichsner 19:48 6:23
24 Samantha Segan 19:49 6:23
25 Drew Guthrie 20:02 6:27
26 Marshall Insley 20:08 6:29
27 Matthew Schwark 20:11 6:30
28 Tim Decker 20:16 6:32
29 Yariv Leers 20:20 6:33
30 Josh Coven 20:23 6:34
31 Mary Brown 20:24 6:34
32 Adam Yarnold 20:31 6:37
33 Dan Gonzales 20:39 6:39
34 Julie Valls 20:40 6:39
35 Ken Szcerkregar 20:46 6:41
36 Bernd Erpenbeck 20:47 6:42
37 Mark Bilsky 20:48 6:42
38 David Weill 20:49 6:42
39 Ira Berg 20:50 6:43
40 Ross Neumann 20:56 6:44
41 Russ Charlton 21:02 6:46
42 Kate Pavlovich 21:09 6:49
43 Patrick Breslin 21:16 6:51
44 Piotr Marczewski 21:18 6:52
45 Larry Rahklin 21:18 6:52
46 Taylor Heinselman 21:20 6:52
47 J Kreirfrimphong 21:20 6:52
48 Jameson Allen 21:26 6:54
49 David Dietz 21:27 6:55
50 William Newton 21:29 6:55
51 Dave Kleckner 21:33 6:57
52 Theo Dassin 21:35 6:57
53 Eric Salvador 21:38 6:58
54 Sammy Schindel 21:49 7:02
55 Jonathan Schindel 21:50 7:02
56 Stanley Young 21:50 7:02
57 Kathleen Coughlin 21:52 7:03
58 Stephanie Spangler 22:07 7:07
59 Bobby Farmer 22:07 7:08
60 Robert Pasqual 22:15 7:10
61 Sean Cochran 22:23 7:13
62 Jan Noordin 22:28 7:14
63 Julie Buck 22:28 7:14
64 Michael Kreicher 22:31 7:15
65 Justin Model 22:33 7:16
66 Jamie Spadafor 22:34 7:16
67 Nicole Mallory 22:38 7:17
68 Nola Lawless 22:40 7:18
69 Albert Tsuei 22:43 7:19
70 Robert Cowin 22:48 7:21
71 Marc Simpson 22:55 7:23
72 Greg Holzman 22:56 7:23
73 Jonathan Fife 22:57 7:24
74 Ryan Stroker 22:58 7:24
75 Nikki Quinn 23:00 7:24
76 Megan Cartwright 23:00 7:25
77 Ted Epifano 23:00 7:25
78 Lauren Cochran 23:08 7:27
79 Tim Blaquiere 23:11 7:28
80 Masami Issever 23:14 7:29
81 Donald Cutler 23:24 7:32
82 Christine Bilsky 23:30 7:34
83 Kelly Carter 23:38 7:37
84 Beatrice Zovich 23:38 7:37
85 Tim Dukovich 23:39 7:37
86 Alec Franese 23:41 7:38
87 Brenda May 23:41 7:38
88 Ryan Kandrach 23:54 7:42
89 Kevia Wright 23:56 7:43
90 Debbie Panek 24:03 7:45
91 Harrison Isaac 24:03 7:45
92 Caitlin Mooney 24:04 7:45
93 Luiza Silva 24:05 7:46
94 Kathleen Crowley 24:06 7:46
95 David Isaac 24:12 7:48
96 Eddie Jacobs 24:13 7:48
97 Lisa Bergtraum 24:18 7:50
98 Francis Harrison 24:21 7:51
99 Stuart Alexander 24:22 7:51
100 Pinny Kahana 24:26 7:52
101 Yoni Lazarus 24:26 7:52
102 Michael Hamilton 24:46 7:58
103 Robert Frank 24:48 7:59
104 Kevin Freeburn 24:53 8:01
105 Karen Frome 24:53 8:01
106 Melissa Klein 24:56 8:02
107 Jacqueline Wolfson 24:58 8:02
108 Laura Gonzales 24:59 8:03
109 Joyce Perley 25:11 8:07
110 Marty Munston 25:16 8:08
111 Nat Oppenheimer 25:21 8:10
112 Hannah McCulloch 25:23 8:10
113 Sarah Cappy 25:25 8:11
114 Lauren Buckley 25:27 8:12
115 Micky Rediy 25:27 8:12
116 Hillary Burke 25:31 8:13
117 25:32 8:14
118 Greg Safron 25:35 8:15
119 Susie Lee 25:45 8:18
120 Siamanda Chege 25:49 8:19
121 David Brinker 25:50 8:19
122 Toby Tanser 25:53 8:20
123 Chris Cazier 25:58 8:22
124 Morgan Hase 25:58 8:22
125 Nayeem Azam 26:01 8:23
126 Branden Avishar 26:01 8:23
127 Nina Shum 26:06 8:24
128 Mac Resurreccion 26:19 8:28
129 Betsy Fader 26:19 8:29
130 Jacob Eisestein 26:20 8:29
131 Bryan Chao 26:22 8:29
132 Lori Favre 26:28 8:32
133 Joseph Krasner 26:33 8:33
134 Krystelle Buenase 26:35 8:34
135 David Siegel 26:37 8:35
136 Andrew Brady 26:38 8:35
137 Candice Mason 26:51 8:39
138 Ger Lavery 26:52 8:39
139 Christopher Garvie 26:57 8:41
140 Elaine Goldstein 27:04 8:43
141 John Fleisher 27:12 8:46
142 27:14 8:46
143 Ryan Stroker 27:20 8:48
144 Casey Riley 27:25 8:50
145 Ben Simmons 27:36 8:53
146 Rachel Isaac 27:38 8:54
147 Mike Sharp 27:45 8:56
148 Tina Quu 27:47 8:57
149 Colleen Baucom 27:56 9:00
150 Hakan Durantas 27:57 9:00
151 Wendy Yang 27:59 9:01
152 Emily Kozak 28:00 9:01
153 Victoria Cirillo 28:15 9:06
154 Matt Spoerlein 28:15 9:06
155 Steven Beck 28:20 9:07
156 Esrae Bailey 28:22 9:08
157 Tony Edwards 28:23 9:09
158 Jamie Brokowsky 28:28 9:10
159 Michael Doft 28:28 9:10
160 Marc Freschl 28:31 9:11
161 Jeff Ladrow 28:36 9:13
162 Gary Litt 28:43 9:15
163 Murray Maleh 28:46 9:16
164 Mark Tsearsky 29:18 9:26
165 Heidi Ladrow 29:23 9:28
166 Kelly Smith 29:30 9:30
167 David Wong 29:37 9:32
168 George Hirsch 29:58 9:39
169 Terry Trucco 30:13 9:44
170 Clare Garvie 30:15 9:45
171 Kevin Ng 30:16 9:45
172 Marvin Coleman 30:36 9:51
173 Irene Yen 30:39 9:52
174 Heidi Isip 30:47 9:55
175 Dunn Maroh 30:47 9:55
176 Shaw Sage 30:49 9:55
177 James Hull 30:52 9:57
178 David Hull 30:52 9:57
179 Lynn Tirey 30:55 9:57
180 Crystal Slattery 30:56 9:58
181 James Mozur 30:59 9:59
182 Kato Pasbzian 31:06 10:01
183 Amanda Dresen 31:10 10:02
184 Jeff Phizitski 31:14 10:04
185 Luisi Colon 31:16 10:04
186 Kapo Li 31:18 10:05
187 Ambrose Price III 31:31 10:09
188 Flora Engevic 31:32 10:09
189 Casey Buie 31:33 10:10
190 Lauren Miell 31:34 10:10
191 Lawrence Choe 31:42 10:13
192 Carol Chan 31:45 10:14
193 Nora Barak 31:58 10:18
194 Kim Cauchon 32:27 10:27
195 Rebecca Davis 32:28 10:27
196 Michele Reich 32:42 10:32
197 Dierdre Cossman 33:10 10:41
198 Jane Siskin 33:13 10:42
199 Davis Haupt 33:27 10:46
200 Mason Haupt 33:32 10:48
201 Brittany Cheek 33:44 10:52
202 Norman Maleh 33:57 10:56
203 Rahul Sabarwal 34:07 10:59
204 Maria Chale 34:09 11:00
205 Shalini Sabarwal 34:15 11:02
206 Sydney Saracheck 34:29 11:06
207 Melissa Kaplan 34:30 11:07
208 Daniel Lefkowitz 34:30 11:07
209 Kaly Odelia 35:03 11:17
210 Geri Haupt 35:24 11:24
211 Dominique Mollieta 35:26 11:25
212 Stephanie Edwards 35:26 11:25
213 Michelle Maleh 35:28 11:25
214 Liz Hynes 35:43 11:30
215 Will Sanchez 36:02 11:36
216 Sarah Heller 36:32 11:46
217 Carolina Rodriquez 36:40 11:48
218 Esme Edwards 36:52 11:52
219 Valdi Sapira 37:16 12:00
220 Alison Foster 37:20 12:01
221 Gemma Hart 37:21 12:02
222 Steve Estrine 37:22 12:02
223 Jennifer MacMillan 37:23 12:02
224 Emily Park 37:28 12:04
225 Unknown 37:47 12:10
226 Caroline Lauwerys 37:47 12:10
227 Amy Castro 38:51 12:31
228 Ethan Stein 39:48 12:49
229 Arvind Mohan 40:13 12:57
230 Carmelo Puccia 40:46 13:07
231 Jim Ragusa 42:12 13:35
232 Julian Antebi 42:59 13:50
233 Nicole Fuchs 44:44 14:24
234 Ellen Pinschmidt 47:33 15:19
235 Sarlotta Vidal 47:34 15:19
236 Linda Maleh 48:34 15:38
World AIDS Day
Today is the World's AIDs Awareness day. One great thing about about the 'world' per se is that you are not a jack-of-all-trades. In the fight against AIDS there are teams, multitudes, hundreds of thousands of people 'doing stuff' to make AIDS HIV virus a part of 'our' history. Perhaps the most important people are the scientists, locked away in labs, under stairs, in dark rooms, you can just imagine with a test tube and a chemistry kit dropping antidotes into vials... And then there are the medics who work on the ground, in places where AIDS is rampant, healing and curing. When I think of these medics I also think of the people who work with Cholera etc - what a noble set of people. Then you have the lobbyists who look for the funds for all this work, often sitting in a small cramped office in Washington, or wherever, fighting for funds for people to do this work... Gosh I could go on all day.
With Shoe4Africa our (v small) angle is mostly to do with education and awareness; de-stigmatizing the disease in an area of the world where you become an outcast to the society if you are found to be suffering from the disease. You are treated like a leper instead of a victim of a cruel disease. Many of the transmission cases are because 'you' have been raped; but that will not help. There is also a huge lack of information about the disease as no one really understands the ins & outs of AIDS. In 2006 when we produced our first brochure in the Kalenjin tongue I received a ton of mail from people thanking me that for the first time they had information that not only could they understand, but also that they could give to their fathers.
Anyway today I am thinking of Josephine, and her speech, back in that same year. She stood in front of thousands in her town and said, "I have the HIV virus. When I did not know I became sick. I reduced weight and went down 20-kgs in weight. I did not know what was wrong and thought I was going to die. When I discovered what was wrong I went and got help, free drugs, and now I have gained that weight back and am living a healthy life. I am a normal person." A normal person; yes indeed... and a courageous one too... as the fight is a long way from being won.
Josephine, back in action, in 2006
Sign up for the inaugural Shoe4Africa NYC 5km
Space is very limited and the incentives are great. The value of the shirt alone, outweighs the entry as we want to kick off in style. So please come out and run with us. I have a dream that one day this race will be big, Run for Africa... but right now I am happy with just 250 people, so please sign up.. and thanks to Bank Of America for coming in with sponsorship! It is all last minute, we got the permit five days ago!
Shoe4Africa Pasta Party 2011
Rebeccah, Caroline Kilel winner of Boston 2011, Dr. Josephine, Permanent sec. to the UN, Adharanand Finn, Geoffrey Mutai winner of Boston 2011, The Kenyan Ambassador to the USA and Caroline Rotich, winner of the 2011 NYC Half Marathon.
The Shoe4Africa pasta party was great fun, it was our third annual, and our biggest, hosted in Anthony Edwards apartment - we had 100 people show up - our great team of runners and it was wonderful to see the event supported by the Kenyan runners. Sally Kipyego, the 2011 World Championships silver medalist, also came by. Thanks to everyone who helped make it happen too! Footnote - Adharanand is writing a book about Kenyans coming out next year! It will be called... Running with the Kenyans... AND a few years earlier??
Here is Caroline running in a Shoe4Africa event back in 2006
The ING New York City Marathon, and our fab runners!
With one week to go I am getting ready for marathon week. My focus has changed starting with when I first came to NYC and ran as an invited 'elite' as a comeback award from adversity, and always working with the medias and the race. I have done many jobs starting with working with journalism, commentating, web work, photography, then working with the invited runners in the hospitality capacity [including three runs a day in Central Park with different elites making sure they don't get lost - I can tell you Kenyans rarely taper!], many more jobs and of course coaching!
Jody Crabtree in action
Now, since 2009, we have had a Shoe4Africa running team! It has been wonderful getting to know the many people who have gotten involved and this year has been no different - we have an ace team.
Barbara Rose in her team colors
If you go to our sponsor a runner tab you can see the list, but this morning I am just browsing; Barbara Rose above is over $5,000, as is Dave Siegel {again for us!}, and Jody Crabtree, wow, Jody is over ten thousand dollars, ten K! Malcolm Warne and Dale Moberly are over $4,000 and I can see many many runners between $2-$3k. You guys are stepping up and making it happen; thank you so very much!
So please if you are out there on Marathon day and you see a Shoe4Africa runner zipping by please give them a shout, ass they are running to help the kids of Kenya!
The wall of Fame, and the walls of our school #2
Firstly thank thank thank you to everyone on this most amazing list! *JUST CLICK HERE TO SEE* the massive list of people who have donated to the hospital project. The list would be bigger with our other kind donors too. But with this ever stretching page (that gets manually updated, thanks Urban!) comes the outstanding memory that in 2008 there was ZERO dollars. Then there were three names and $700, and from that day, bit by bit, or brick like brick as I like to think, people have stood up to make the difference.
I was just writing a note to my marathon team, the 61-runners who will run 26.2 miles for Team Shoe4Africa in less than three weeks,and saying to them: The highest rates of child mortality are still in Sub-Saharan Africa—where 1 in 8 children dies before age 5, more than 20 times the average for industrialized countries.
Could there be a correlation to the fact East Africa does not have a single public Children’s hospital?
Well that wall of names, the many names, shows me that I am not alone in believing so. The time for action has long since reached its sell-by date. We can do something fantastic, please join me!
And, a further update - here is the latest photo of Janeth's School - you can see the third roof is being put on the classrooms to the left.
