On August 6-9, 2009 endurance athlete and Director and Co-Founder of Impossible2Possible Will Laughlin will attempt to run 200 miles nonstop from Fort Collins, CO to Steamboat Springs, CO. Laughlin, an internationally competitive ultra-marathoner, will be the first athlete to attempt the steep, high-altitude Wild West Relay course, solo; other teams in this popular race are comprised of 6 - 12 athletes who run in rotation. Laughlin is running to raise awareness for Daraja Academy, a girls' school serving the poorest communities in Kenya, including the infamous Kibera slums of Nairobi.
"This school is absolutely amazing," says Laughlin. "Daraja saves many of these girls from certain death, loves them, and educates them for a future worth surviving for." Daraja girls come from several rural and urban areas and various tribes, and a visit to the Kibera slums became the turning point for the school's founder, Jason Doherty. "My wife and I couldn't stop crying after the visit," says the former college linebacker. "You can't leave that place and not feel you have to do something."
Kibera is a disease-plagued dump with no infrastructure that over 2 million Kenyans call home. Life expectancy in Kibera, according to the BBC, is only 30 years, with many children and teens dying from sewage-borne diseases, malnutrition, or AIDS.
Laughlin, a professional writer and brand consultant learned about Daraja Academy while interviewing Doherty for Tonic Magazine, "Jason is such a humble guy. His vision for the school and the Daraja kids was, to me, immediately irresistible."
Daraja Academy is located on the Likipia Plateau, an area that produces some of the world's best runners. "The fantasy of becoming a world-class runner is, for many Kenyans, like the fantasy American inner-city kids have of becoming an NBA star. It represents a dramatic, but statistically improbable fantasy of escape from poverty; when you don't have real options, you go to fantasy or despair. So we want to use running to draw attention to more accessible opportunities-like education."
Laughlin will run under the auspices of impossible2Possible
www.impossible2Possible.com and with the support of Anthem Branding
www.anthembranding.com.
To follow Laughlin's training, learn more about the run, or donate to Daraja Academy, visit the UltraWill website at:
www.ultrawill.squarespace.com.
To learn more about Daraja Academy please visit their website at:
www.daraja-academy.org