Running For Haiti

Hello everyone! As many as you already know, the capital of Haiti was struck by a catastrophic 7.0 earthquake on Tuesday. Since then terrible images and reports of the destruction have been coming in detailing this tragic natural disaster. Haiti is the poorest nation in the Americas and Port-au-Prince is its largest city. With the death toll rising and their emergency services already overstretched, Haiti is depending on international aid from the governments of the world and relief organizations.

I, like probably many of you, wish there was more that I could do to help the people suffering in Port-au-Prince right now. Although a busy work and school schedule precludes me from catching the first plane out to help (as well as being sans passport)I know I would only get in the way of the relief effort. I find that the one thing I can control though in this crazy world is the amount I run. So I figured I'd start this blog and put that control into the hands of the charitable!

So here's the deal. To raise money for the Haiti relief effort I will run one mile for every $10 you donate to one of the following organizations:

The International Medical Corps
The International Red Cross
Doctors Without Borders
Partners In Health
Oxfam
Direct Relief International
UNICEF

All I need is a proof of donation (for example, a screenshot of a receipt or a forwarded email etc) with the date and the amount donated sent to running4relief@gmail.com.

I will give myself a year to complete the miles (1/14/2011) and will photolog my progress in weekly updates on this blog. To keep myself honest, if I fail to run the miles I will match the donations to a maximum of a $1000 and run the extra 100 miles in 10 days or less.

So please if you can, donate to these aid organizations and make me run as many miles as possible. I'll take any donation receipt starting today (1/14/2010) and I'll start it off with $100 to the Red Cross, who wants to match me?