One Day on Earth

I first heard about One Day on Earth from my colleague Galvin. It seemed like a great project for our students, and we spent some time on Friday talking about the event and how we could encourage our students to participate. We decided to promote the project among our IB students and our Club NExT (technology club) members. Eventually the conversation turned to our own ideas. We decided that we ought to participate ourselves.

I really had nothing planned today except for catching up on sleep in the morning and some work in the afternoon, so I figured I'd have some time to film something. Someone mentioned the Run for Pasig, a race organized to raise funds to restore the Pasig River. Organizers hoped to aim for the Guinness Book of World Records for most runners in a single race, with more than 120,000 participants registered for the run.

I woke up around 4:30am and traveled down to the Mall of Asia, the site of the finish line for the three races being held (3K, 5K, and 10K runs). The number of people was astonishing.
Early news reports suggest that the run has indeed set a new world record.

I unfortunately forgot to bring a battery for my still camera, but I was able to film a couple of clips using one of Xavier's Flip Cams. I'll try to splice them together and upload something onto the One Day on Earth site sometime in the next week. In the meantime, here's a still shot from the Flip Cam:

It's inspiring to see so many people come together for an event like this. One of the primary waterways of the Metro Manila area, the Pasig River has been considered biologically dead by the 1990s. Despite numerous efforts at restoration, very little has been accomplished. Hopefully today's run can spark more substantive change.

The whole idea of One Day on Earth is equally inspiring. What a fantastic way to encourage people to see the full breadth and depth of human experience. I can't wait to see the final product.

Did anyone else participate? I'm eager to hear what other schools have been doing for this.