Cold Day....Warm Fuzzy

Today was the culmination of a few short weeks of activity by hundreds of volunteers to accept the challenge and raise BIG BUCKS for the trails system extending from New Haven on the east to Aboite Trails on the west and north toward the Dupont Rd. area. It will serve thousands with a seamless connection of walking, biking, running, rollerblading trails. 40 miles of them. Indiana News Center spearheaded a campaign in response to seed money of $10,000.00 from Oprah's Big Give. Today as the effort culminated with a celebration of runs, walks, biking and a community party at Headwaters Park it was announced that the community response generated over a million dollars. Oprah's film crews were taping all day at the events and Ft. Wayne will certainly be a part of the final episode of Oprah's Big Give on Sunday April 20th. Several sections of the trails can now be completed and joined together with the existing system.
It was a cold and wet day and yet thousands braved the weather to participate. Tony Dungee and some of the Indianapolis Colts even came to help celebrate. A number of us on the training team helped man a booth at two of the locations to encourage anyone interested in following a program in parallel to ours to watch the Indiana News Center broadcasts and website for the weekly step by step program that they can follow. Each of us will soon be blogging on that website.
Today wasn't a workout day for me as it should have been but a few hours out in the cold and wet on the concrete was a test of undurance of a sort. Tomorrow I'll get back at it. In just over a month of step by step effort I am more fit, flexible and surprised at how good I feel and what I can do. And I've lost 8 pounds--a nice side benefit. If I were not a part of "the group" I would still be back at my sedentary square one. All of us in the training group can partner with many through the broadcast and internet media so all can benefit from the inspiration and encouragement needed to succeed.