Suntree Turkey Trot 2015

 8 AM Thanksgiving morning, 75 degrees and sunny, the perfect weather for a morning run. That's why over 1300 people from 33 states have gathered at the Suntree Country Club in Suntree, Florida for the annual Turkey Trot 5k & 10k Fun Run & Walk for the Dr. Brent R. Gooch Memorial Foundation. The race has been a Thanksgiving tradition in Suntree for the past ten years thanks to race director Steve Baerst.

Baerst, an aircraft tester for Embraer Executive Jets and a member of the country club, moved into the area in 2003. He and his wife had had some experience running 5k's and 10k's. They were invited to attend a Thanksgiving run in Orlando. Baerst decided to start a local run the following year to make it more convenient for him and his family to attend. He consolidated a sponsorship with Running Zone, and organized his fun run with no more than 70 people registered to run.

The following year Dr. Gooch, a family friend from the Church of Latter Day Saints, passed away due to complications with his type 1 diabetes. Gooch dedicated his life to helping others overcome the effects of diabetes. Dr. Gooch was an athlete and avid runner, so Baerst decided that it made sense to dedicate the run to Dr. Gooch and donate all proceeds to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

Over the last ten years, the race has grown immensely, gaining a maximum capacity and multiple sponsors. Last year the race raised $15,000 in proceeds and has been steadily increasing every year. Baerst tries to keep cost's as low as possible so that he can maximize the amount of money donated to the JDRF. Most of the sponsors and volunteers has come to find the race by word of mouth.

Baerst has three major goals in mind for every Turkey Trot: Have a fun community event, promote fitness, and raise money for the JDRF. Baerst also made the decision to make registration of children under ten years old free of charge to make it a more family friendly event. Kevin Christensen, a pilot and resident of Satellite Beach, has been attending the run with his family since 2005. He was also a friend of Dr. Gooch.

With the goal of family-friendly activities in mind, all participants are welcome to bring their pets along for the run. Numerous dogs of all breeds and sizes attend the race with their owners. One German Shepard and her handler were running at the 7-minute pace, keeping and even pace with one another.

The race also takes on new participants as well as new volunteers every year. One such volunteer is Andraya Barrett, an Air Force Staff Sergeant and trained medic. She heard about the race from a friend on Patrick Air Force Base where she is stationed. The race needed medical support on staff and Barrett, An experienced runner herself, was happy to help. Before the race, she was handing out shirts that participants receive for registering.

Some volunteers have been on staff a lot longer. Bruce Hoppe, a parking attendant, has been working with Baerst since 2004 on the Turkey Trot. Hoppe loves to see everyone happy and in the festive spirit. “It's nice to see friends in the community come to together and all of the people you know and don't know.” Hoppe plans to continue volunteering every year.

The race is not without its road blocks. Baerst says that he apologizes to his wife in advance two weeks before Thanksgiving because he may become terse and snappy when organizing the event. Baerst has also found that persistence is key in organizing the event. When he first started looking for road barriers, he went to the county and asked to borrow some. He was denied at first, but he just kept asking. Eventually, the county allowed him to use them, free of charge. This allowed Baerst to donate more money to the JDRF. He also does no advertising other than the website suntreeturkeytrot.org where race info is available.

The Running Zone being the main sponsor sets the markers at the event. The runners are placed by section depending on how fast they run. Starting with the 6-minute mile runners at the front. The demographic is sectioned through the crowd, with the high school cross-country runners at the front and the elderly walkers at the back. The end of the race is topped off with a caricature of Dr. Gooch at the finish line.

Baerst says that he will continue directing the race for the next few years “I want to hit the 15-year mark.” At that point he says he may pass the torch to someone else, but he definitely would like the tradition to continue for as long as possible. Though it is a challenge and can be a big workload, especially in the holiday season, Baerst says that he's happy with the fact he has found a way to give back to his community and honor the memory of a man as compassionate and dedicated as Dr. Gooch.

Southeast Asia and Feminism: An Activists Account

                The SWAG departments held a discussion panel on global feminism on Thursday, October 29th at the SunTrust Auditorium at Rollins College. The was organized by Shaffaq Noor, a Junior at Rollins and member of the Computer Science department. Noor organized the event as a way to build support for the project that her and her sister are undertaking: opening an all women's Internet cafe in Northern Pakistan.  The panel also included Rollins professor's Dr. Margaret McLaren, and Dr. Rachel Newcomb. But the first speaker, Dr. Kathryn Norsworthy, a graduate level counseling instructor and Licensed psychologist, set the table for the "global" in this global feminism panel.

                For the past 30 years Dr. Norsworthy has been travelling to southeast Asia. As time went on, the trips turned from learning and study to activism and support. Over the last 18 years Dr. Norsworthy has been involved in a range of peace and justice, women's leadership, social justice education, HIV/AIDS, and other projects with the refugee communities of Burmese, Thai, Cambodian, and Tibetan Asian regional groups and international. Her activism work allowed her to form a friendship with Ouyporn Khuankaew. Ouyporn is a Thai feminist activist and public intellectual who lives just outside of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. Dr. Norsworthy describes her relationship with Ouyporn forming by chance. "Our paths crossed by accident - some might say synchronistically." During this time (the pre-email period) the two exchanged various letters and faxes and decided to work together.

                It would make sense that a true feminist like Dr. Norsworthy would be doing work in Thailand. Thailand is a Tier 3 country, the lowest rank, in the Trafficking in Persons Report of 2014 along with North Korea, Syria, and the Central African Republic. Dr. Norsworthy states that the sex industry in Thailand is one of the biggest threats to the feminist movement.  Most of these women come from rural villages in the northern province and have very little education and skills. Because they are so impoverish, they turn to the sex industry to support themselves. This is also happens with refugees from Myanmar, or Burma as Norsworthy calls it (to show solidarity with the democracy movement that began in '67).  Dr. Norsworthy and Ouyporn combat this threat by educating and empowering women.

                The two took on their first project together after meeting in a traveler's hotel  on Christmas Day  in 1997, in the backpack district of Bangkok. "We noted later that fell into the template for the 'global order' - me, the white, U.S. PhD. level feminist counseling psychologist,  as  the primary facilitator and teacher, and Ouyporn, the Thai woman of color, MA educated feminist activist and educator, as the translator." The project was a three day workshop for a non-government organization on the topic of violence against women. As the first day went on, both of their roles slowly began to shift. They slowly became co-facilitators rather than working in a hierarchical structure.

                Dr. Norsworthy stated that this was her long term goal for feminism in Thailand and southeast Asia, to support and facilitate a positive outcome for feminism and to help assimilate feminist ideas into the culture, rather than change the culture radically. Ouyporn  Has been a great help to Norsworthy in achieving this goal; As a Thai woman of color and insider, she deals with the mixed experiences of cultural, ethnic, and national identities. Because of this, she holds a much greater degree of social influence and status than many of the activists that Norsworthy worked with.

                Ouyporn and Norsworthy found themselves working on a number of projects with the refugee women's community of Burma. Thailand is populated with over a million Burmese refugees. Most of these refugees live without legal status after fleeing the political violence and oppression of their homeland. In one such project, the two were invited by women from a Burmese ethnic minority group to help them start a women's organization. They spent a lot of time planning how to facilitate the process and present feminist principles. The idea was to use these principles and practices for the group as guides for engagement.

                They sat on the floor in a circle and invited the participants to brainstorm feminist values and principles they believed would be important in laying a framework for their organization. Norsworthy and Ouyporn compiled a list of contrasting patriarchal values side by side with western feminist values. They offered the list to the group for their consideration. A local partner was serving as translator and "cultural bridge" so that all different native speakers of the several languages being spoken could communicate effectively. As the participants viewed the list, they drew closer together and became more animated. They were confused as to what was happening. Their local partner, Daw Thali, informed them: "The list you gave the group... There are many words on it that are not part of our local language or even Burmese. There is not direct translation and in some cases, nothing in our language that is even close, so they are trying to get the meaning through discussion." The locals went on to try and invent some terminology based on their own cultural values and experiences, claiming that they weren't sure if they even wanted a "democratic" organization(defined on the feminist framework). They claimed that in a democracy, people's voices go unheard, Small groups who are not the mainstream are never represented, and that they wanted something better than democracy.  It was in this moment that they realized that they were almost the instruments of another form of "colonization" which is the opposite of what Norsworthy was trying to accomplish.

                Dr. Norsworthy encourages all young feminists to go out and learn, observe, and help support a more positive environment for feminists around the world, to study and research before trying to promote what you might think is a positive or a progressive idea. In the end, you may end up hurting when trying to help.

                

            Leymah Gbowee  spoke at the Alfond Sports Center's Warden Arena last Wednesday, September 16th. Her speech, Leading Change Through Activism — The Liberian Women’s Experience, set the table by asking the audience to imagine their seventeen year old daughter, fresh out of high school, awaiting her first day of university."... All of the sudden, shooting erupts, and she is responsible for a household of eight people by noon, and by 6 PM, almost fifty persons...One minute you're a child, and the next minute, you're an adult." This, Gbowee explained, was her experience as a seventeen year old. All of her dreams of being a doctor were taken from her when war struck her home country of Liberia.

            She spoke about the atrocities that took place in that time. Having to take care of her family because her mother was too traumatized to function and her father went missing. Hearing about members of her graduating class that had been massacred along with their families. Members of her church that had been sexually assaulted and murdered.  Recalling an African proverb, "It takes a whole village to raise a child." Before she knew it, these same people turned on each other based on ethnicity, and religion. Understandably, this made her angry

            Gbowee held that anger for a long time until she "found her way back" from that anger. "...I found my way back in a very cynical way. I learned that God has a sense of humor..."   She found herself working with ex-child soldiers, the same people that were responsible for the death and destruction in her community. She told a story of three boys: Sam Johnson, who was conscripted after being left by his mother and his younger siblings at only 8 years old, Joseph Kali, and Magee, who were both conscripted at the age of 12. All were amputees by the time Gbowee had met them years later, Sam missing an arm, Joseph and Magee both missing a leg, she realized that they had lost just as much, if not more, than she had "It made me question where I put my anger...these children are victims as much as I am a victim"

            After moving on to southeast Liberia, Gbowee started a group called the Christian Women's Peace Initiative, starting with the object of praying for peace, but later started the Peace Outreach Project, going from community to community with the goal of inspiring Liberian women to take action, passing out flyers at morgues, market places, and churches. After nine months, the group increased from 20 to over 300 women. From there, they began the Mass Action Campaign. Their first press release was paid for by donations. They signed their names and risked being jailed all in the name of peace, because "...the prize of peace, was even worth the lives we lived."

            In 2003 a peace treaty was signed and the war came to an end. Gbowee continued to fight for women's rights and in 2005, Liberia was able to elect Africa's first female president. She said through all of her activism she learned "If you stand firm on what you believe, you're bound to succeed." Her message was inspirational to say the least, motivating people to stand up and fight against the evil in the world. "Activism for change isn't necessarily ending wars. Activism for change isn't necessarily putting your life on the line. Activism for change is giving people hope when they have none left. It's giving back to humanity."

            When asked how she would overcome fear of the unknown, she responded with by saying a person should never let fear of what may or may not happen stop one from doing the right thing. She was asked about her thoughts about the immigration crisis in Europe. "It's pathetic" she stated, saying that war should not be the only suitable reason for immigration and refugees from countries that were destroyed by war and never rebuilt. She responded to a question about Leopoldo Lopez, a Venezuelan opposition leader being sentenced to 14 years for encouraging peaceful protest by saying that someone has to be the sacrificial lamb. "We shouldn't always be looking for a savior, because all people that have done great things were just ordinary people who got pissed off."   Gbowee also claimed her happiness stemmed from young people and the tenacity they have to create change.

            Gbowee is founder of the Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa. She was the founding head of the Liberian Reconciliation Initiative.. She is also a founding member and former Liberia coordinator of Women in Peacebuilding Network/West Africa Network for Peacebuilding .She is currently named a Distinguished Fellow in Social Justice at Barnard College. Her leadership of the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace is chronicled in her memoir, Mighty Be Our Powers, and in the documentary, Pray the Devil Back to Hell.

                Of the few things I own and have owned in my life, there a even fewer that have brought me such great satisfaction as the Ibanez electric-acoustic guitar with the cutoff body that hangs on the wall in my room. a simple black strap of polyester and fabric hangs off of the back of it. The tuning pegs are but a few months old. The strings are clean, wound of silk and steel. a small pick guard sits below the opening, black and glossy. The front is a natural wood finish while the rest of the body is a dark, stained finish. When I look at it, a flood of memories rushes through my mind. I can remember the first time I laid eyes upon it.

                I was a freshman in high school when I received it as  a Christmas gift. I had been practicing guitar for little over 2 years on a Fender Stratocaster knock-off and a 10 watt Peavy amp. When I first opened the box. It was perfection. None of the dings or scratches it now wears so proudly, the battle scars of live performance and travel, but sleek and polished, already strung with copper wound .11 - .49 gauge strings. A deep rustic sound rung out as I took my first strum. The harmonic overtones continued to ring out long after I had struck that open G major chord. I could smell the wood inside of the body that had been left untouched after it had been shaped.

                I spent the next 8 years with this guitar. I wrote my first song on it. It was written after listening to the White Album on repeat for a month. To this day, I have still not written lyrics for that song; the music just seems to speak for itself. I played my first show with it. It was Relay for Life 2008 at my high school. I had gotten together with a drummer and a bassist and another guitarist. We covered Here Comes the Sun by The Beatles. I did the vocals and the rhythm guitar, while the lead mimicked the sounds of the keyboard played in the original recording. I had never felt so alive. It was that day I decided I wanted to be a professional musician one day.

                As time went on, I would write more and more. Everything that I've ever written on guitar would be written using my Ibanez. The summer after high school I got together with two friends who played the bass and drums. We would form a band called The Public Trust and play all original music. Every show, every practice, my Ibanez would accompany me, played through the same P.A. system that I would sing through. That P.A. Would end up exploding on our 20th show of the year and leaving me with just my axe and microphone, but no way to amplify. The band would slowly dissipate after that. Kyle the drummer would get caught up in a relationship with a woman twice his age. Mark would find God after years of being an ardent "Anti-theist". I would continue on to pursue and education, but my Ibanez would stay with me through all of it.

                My first years in college would not be without stress. I had the bright idea to move in with my girlfriend at 19 years old. I swear to this day that Ibanez got me through some of those stressful times. I would sometimes lay awake at night, alone with my thoughts and emotions as she slept. I would sit out in the living room of our tiny apartment  let the strings speak everything I felt, for I could not. I still do that from time to time, though now I have a room of own. I still take very good care of my guitar, polishing the woods and changing the string on a regular basis, I replace the tuning pegs every 3 years or whenever rust or damage comes upon them.  This guitar has not only been with me through some of the most trying years of my life, but has also taught me the value of taking good care of the things that are worth holding onto. I may not always play this guitar as my first choice, But I will always have it with me.

-On my honor, I have not given, nor received, nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on this work.