The term walking a mile in another person’s shoes has taken on a whole new meaning in a Kenyan village.
Runners in Thunder Bay have donated around 3,000 pairs since Gilbert Kiptoo started competing in the Fire Fighters Ten Mile Road Race, taking place Monday morning.
“Everybody (in Kenya) would like to run,” Kiptoo said Saturday morning outside of Fresh Air Experience. “Shoes mean a lot.”
Kiptoo has been returning with suitcases of shoes to his village thanks to the Fresh Air Training Group. The group has also started sponsoring seven orphans in the Kenyan village. But this year, they went the extra mile. Over the past 18 weeks while training for the race, the 180-person group has been busy fundraising for Community Education services to build a classroom for children in Kiptoo’s village. The room is in honour of Deanna O’Neil, a local runner who passed away two years ago.
“In my life I always wanted to see something like that in my village,” Kiptoo said.
Thunder Bay is well known in Kiptoo’s hometown because of the fundraising efforts over the years. When he first came to compete in the road race, Kiptoo knew no one. But he was quickly introduced to Sandy Guthrie, who heads up the running group.
“Sandy has played a very big role in this,” he said. “The community was welcoming.”
“I just felt he was a true genuine loving person,” Guthrie said. “Gilbert is now like our adopted son.”
She said it’s unbelievable how generous Thunder Bay has been. Just the other day while Kiptoo was speaking a local school, a grade four student requested money instead of presents for her birthday so she could give it to Kiptoo and his village.
“For that to touch a student in grade four is unbelievable. There are some tremendous tremendous people in our city,” Guthrie said.
