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FITNESS
FOR A CAUSE:
Boulderites mix athleticism with volunteerism
By Aimee Heckel, Camera Staff Writer, 09/15/2009
When you're dangling off a mountain's edge, the bodies below you
looking like grains of sand, you can feel very alone. Sometimes
that's a beautiful thing. But other times, rock climbing -- just
like other athletic pursuits -- can become highly individualistic
and even selfish, says Andrew Councell. Athletes can become so focused
on what they put inside their bellies and how their bodies and minds
are performing, that they don't see farther than their own shoelaces.
Not Councell. The Estes Park man, who works at Boulder's Colorado
Mountain School, has found a way to combine his passion for mountains
with helping people around the world. You've heard of races for
cures and causes. But using fitness for a Curt Flather, front, hikes
Green Mountain with his son, Dylan, left, and wife Paula, right,
in an effort to raise money for Educate!, a group that sponsors
education programs in Africa. About 50 people showed up for the
event. Educate! was started by Eric Glustrom when he was a junior
in high school. (Rachel Berns) good cause can involve much more.
Boulder County boasts volunteer programs and fundraisers for climbers,
hikers, yogis, nutrition experts, outdoor lovers and even just regular
folks looking for an extra excuse to exercise. For some people,
it might just mean swapping out one regular workout per week to
play tennis with an at-risk kid or teach yoga to domestic-abuse
survivors. Others have made volunteer fitness the center of their
lives.
Alexia Nestoria, a consultant for the volunteer travel industry,
says increasingly more people are mixing their hobbies with humanitarian
work. Just about five years ago, Nestoria says there were 10 companies
in the world that offered volunteer vacations. Today, there are
hundreds. It's common for outdoor adventure companies and fitness
excursions have humanitarian components. Take Ambassadors for Children
(ambassadorsforchildren.org), which recently launched yoga volunteer
trips in Costa Rica and India. "The companies have realized this
is the market and are marketing a new product," she says. "Everyone
wants to volunteer." Especially in Boulder, a city equally known
for its social consciousness as for its athletic prowess.
For Councell, that combo brought him to Pakistan,
where he volunteered for three weeks with the International Mountain
Leadership Institute. He trained Balti porters in mountain-guiding
skills, such as crevasse rescue, tying knots, first-aid, and navigation.
The class was aimed to help increase the tourist industry in that
region and empower the porters and farmers to transform their lives.
"It made me feel like it wasn't just something I'm doing on my own.
It's building a community of people who care," Councell says. "And
its teaching them that the mountains aren't just a barrier or limitation.
They're a great resource, a place to get centered and come back
to the reality of life, rather than perceived reality." 'The most
fulfilling classes that I teach' Like climbing, yoga can also become
internally focused, says Nancy Candea, of Boulder. "Our fitness
routines and lives can become almost narcissistic," she says. "But
if we can, as human beings who care about our own bodies, turn that
outward, it matures us."
Candea recognized that several years ago,
after she moved to Boulder from Hawaii. "Even though I was enjoying
my teaching, I felt like my career was 'Hmm, am I just going to
teach sun salutations to white women all my life?'" she says. "I
have always wanted to work for the UN, and then I realized there
are refugee camps in our own backyard that we don't look at." That's
when Candea went back to school to become a yoga therapist, with
a focus on teaching yoga in difficult places. She began teaching
yoga to prisoners at the Boulder County Jail through the Prison
Dharma Network. She volunteered to teach yoga and nutrition to women
at the Boulder County Safehouse. And she started working with the
Youth Services Initiative to bring yoga to low-income and immigrant
children. "When people go through trauma or depression, their lives
are just about survival and they lose touch with their bodies,"
Candea says. "When they're even just a little physical, it changes
their lives so much because their bodies are not use to it. It's
a huge shift."
In February, Candea opened her own nonprofit,
Satellite Yoga, which offers various outlets for the community to
get involved, from fundraising to teaching. And it's worth it, she
says. "These are the most fulfilling classes that I teach," Candea
says. "After I help a woman who has lupus and she's just been raped
-- and I help her learn how to breathe and calm herself down --
I feel like I'm teaching life skills that will last forever." Using
what you already know You're doing it anyway. You might as well
do something with it.
That's Scott Layne's belief. Layne, a 2003
Boulder High graduate, is studying physical therapy at the University
of Southern California. As an extension of his education, he volunteered
with children with special needs summer camp in Oklahoma, exercising
with them and helping them develop physical skills. In California,
Layne has volunteered teaching after-school phys ed classes to low-income
kindergartners. He says the children started the program shy and
awkward; many hadn't done anything like it before. But by the end
of the six weeks, he says the kids had more self-esteem -- and a
lot more to say. "This is something that I love, something I am
going to school for," Layne says. "It's a way for me to use my knowledge
to help individuals who might not get it in any other situation."
Not to mention, it's fun -- throwing balls, bowling, rafting, running
through the park, trying new dance classes, says Alex Zinga. Zinga
is the program coordinator for Boulder's Youth Services Initiative,
which serves nearly 150 local low-income kids in after-school and
summer recreation camps. Many of the participants couldn't otherwise
afford to go to the rec center or learn new sports, or they might
have language or cultural barriers, Zinga says. "Boulder's such
an active community," she says. "That's why people live here: the
rec centers, trails, parks. Fitness is valued -- and that should
include everyone." A deeper connection Hiking is where Educate began.
It's only fitting that the Boulder nonprofit's latest fundraiser
centers around the mountains. Educate is a nonprofit that teaches
young Africans about leadership and social responsibility, providing
long-term mentoring in hopes of inspiring the next generation of
leaders.
Eric Glustrom, of Boulder, began raising
money for the cause in 2002 by climbing fourteeners and asking friends
and family to sponsor him. On Sunday, Educate organized a Climb
for Uganda fundraiser; while an estimated 200 local volunteers scaled
Flagstaff Mountain, a group of African students hiked a mountain
in Kampala, Uganda, according to spokeswoman Maya Ellman. "It brings
everyone together, even though we're so far away," she says. "We're
hiking and climbing for the same cause." She says adding the physical
component to volunteerism makes donors feel more invested; that's
why some of the most successful fundraisers across the nation are
races and relays. "Physical activity makes you feel like you're
a part of something, not just writing a check for $25," Ellman says.
"You're sweating and huffing and puffing and working to raise that
money. That helps people connect more."
Contact Staff Writer Aimee Heckel at 303-473-1359
or heckela@dailycamera.com. Published in Reach Out the newsletter
of Safehouse Progressive alliance for nonviolence issue #1 2009
http://www.safehousealliance.org/index.cfm?objectid=B62DEC3F-D614-E19E-22D3E64FE387748F
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