Making a Difference

Well today was the day for my big event. In my last entry I neglected to mention that I have been in the process of organizing a 5k run. It all started with a quiet lunch on the RUW campus down by the water on the beach. My new friend Eric and I were talking about things that we like to do and he mentioned that he liked helping out those less fortunate then him and that he had started a helping club at his old school. I thought this was a great idea and suggested that maybe we combine efforts and raise money for children in Africa (I wanted mosquito nets and Eric wanted shoes). We decide that the best way to do this was to organize a 5k race on the RWU campus and get the whole RWU community involved. The next day the leg work started. We started sending out emails to everyone we could think of, looking for anyone who would listen to our idea. It took a little bit of effort and lawyerly reasoning, but we eventually found our in and got the RWU athletics staff and the president on board. We were soon off and running at a miraculous pace.  In a short few months the race went from a small idea on a beach, to a global effort. The race was advertised on the school website, runner’s websites, and in the community. We went from just raising money for shoes and nets, to gathering food for a local shelter and shoes and shirts for the children of Djibouti. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that a couple of law students could accomplish something like this, but with a lot of inspiration and help we succeeded. The race was a GREAT success. We raised a lot of money, collected a lot of food, and have a lot of tee shirts, I could not be happier. For a first time thing it was awesome. In fact the race will become an annual thing, and there will be another one in the Spring. I want to thank everyone that came out to help, run, and walk we could not done it without you. I hope that future law students continue the tradition when I am gone, because doing something like this brings the community together, allows you to escape just for a little while the everyday, and makes a difference in the world no matter how small. And to all you future RWU students out there remember great thing are born from small conversations on RWU beaches.