Hello, I’m Chiyo Nakabayashi, a member of the management office of Global Charity Run & Walk.
This project, which was announced at the end of June and was recruiting participants, has finally started!
The number of participants became 29 people from Korea, Thailand and Japan.
A total of 56,616 yen was collected, including those who only donated by saying a happy voice that I could not participate because it was not convenient, but at least I wanted to support.
This money will be donated in full to the Mae Kok Foundation in Thailand.
The purpose of this project is to interact with each participant and with the support recipients unlike the online marathon, in which the entry person runs or walks individually and declares only the distance. Therefore, three online exchange meetings will be held from Saturday, July 10th to Sunday, July 25th.
Let me report on the opening ceremony on July 10th and what kind of participants there are!
On this day, the opening of the Tokyo Olympics is just around the corner! So we imagined the opening ceremony of a sporting event.
Start with Mr. Takahashi’s “Opening Declaration” attended by the host organization MRA Foundation! With a solemn fanfare as BGM, and the declaration with an atmosphere that is a bit different from the usual Mr. Takahashi, the air inside Zoom (online video tool) has become friendly at once.
Next, in the player oath, two participants declared their enthusiasm.
== Oath (full text) ==
We swear!
We have run in each place so far.
The places are far apart, but the hearts are connected.
Taking advantage of this connection, we swear to fully demonstrate our strengths, support each other with the friends we met in this program, and run happily.
(Mr. Takashi Kato)
We hereby swear to eliminate the lack of exercise on a daily basis and enjoy a change of pace by feeling the seasons full of body by walking and running.
(Ms. Motoko Morita (Teddy))
==
Everyone cannot get together in everyday life. Besides, the exchange will be online only, but I was very happy to be able to connect my hearts and carry out the charity with the same feelings with others.
The self-introduction had 30 seconds per person, and we tried it in English.
(Since it is not a language program, Japanese is also okayed)
Members with various motives for participation and presentation styles gathered:
Those who walk their two dogs to reach the target distance, those who are running normally but enthusiastic about enjoying this program, and those who have to exercise anyway!
By the way, this project also has participants from Thailand, where the Mae Kok Foundation that we support is located. This is Mindi, who was also a participant of Asian Beat Online 2 which ended earlier.
There was also a feature to dance Thai pop as a preparatory exercise on that day, and there was also a guest lecturer Pam.
We learned greetings in Thai and simple words, and we shot a video message to the Mae Kok Foundation.
It’s really difficult to pronounce Thai. Even if you say simple words, you can’t pronounce them just by listening to them, and in the end, we asked to write the phonetic symbols in the alphabet, and we could manage to get the pronunciation closer.
We hope the feelings in the message will resonate with the children whom we support.
In the end,
I’m writing this blog on Thursday, four days after the opening. What is the status of the project now? It’s more exciting than I expected!
Every day, the distance that someone ran or walked is taken as a screenshot and posted on LINE (chat app), so I am inspiring “I will do my best too”.
I admire that there are people who are older than me and walk more than 7 kilometers while picking up trash.
I exchange information with Mindi on LINE through Bingo’s assignments that the management staff Megumi Kiriha prepared for us to enjoy. I also started watching Thai dramas. The individual goal setting is very unique and interesting, too.
The season is from the rainy season to summer, a hot season. If you can enjoy “feeling the season” as stated in the player’s oath, you may feel the flowing sweat comfortably.