CNN Heroes of 2008

My husband and I recently watched CNN's Heroes of 2008 on television. While all of the stories and the top 10 heroes were inspiring, one story in particular resonated with me. It is the story of a runner by the name of Anne Mahlum. The question she asked of herself; "Why am I running past these guys?", made me realize that we all run past things on a daily basis that we could choose to get involved with or make a difference. Here is Anne's story:

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (CNN) -- At 5 a.m. on any given day, Anne Mahlum could be found running the dark streets of Philadelphia -- with homeless men cheering her on as she passed their shelter. But one morning last spring, she stopped in her tracks.

"Running really is a metaphor for life," Anne Mahlum says. "You just have to take it one step at a time."

"Why am I running past these guys?" recalls Mahlum, 27. "I'm moving my life forward every day -- and these guys are standing in the same spot." Instead of continuing to pass them by, the veteran marathoner sprang into action so they could join her.

She contacted the shelter, got donations of running gear, and in July 2007 the "Back On My Feet" running club hit the streets. The first day, Mahlum led nine shelter residents in a mile-long run. Today, Back on My Feet has teams in three Philadelphia shelters, including 54 homeless members and more than 250 volunteers. The group has logged more than 5,000 miles.

Requirements for shelter residents to join are simple -- they must live in an affiliated facility and be clean and sober for 30 days. Members receive new shoes and running clothes, and teams run together three times a week between 5:30 and 6 a.m. The runners are diverse -- doctors, janitors, students and shelter residents -- but such distinctions aren't apparent.

"All you can tell is who's the fastest," says Mahlum. "You can't tell who's homeless and who's not." For Mahlum and others, Back On My Feet is more than a running club.

I could just file this away in my memory as a nice, compelling story. If Anne's story is indeed compelling, what am I compelled to do? How might I go about taking that one step at a time that Anne refers to in her story? That one step would begin with noticing what I do "run past" on a daily basis. How might I make a difference? What will that action step look like?

There are certainly many people in our society who are constantly passed by. What if we all decided to do things differently? What if we actually answered the question; "Who me?" or "When, now?" with a resounding "Yes!".

http://backonmyfeet.org/main/index.html