Our friends in Panamá, Grupo Panamá Más Verde aren’t waiting to take action till October 24th. A few weeks ago, they got together a group to do a reforestation project in the Panama Canal Zone. Then, just last week, they completed an amazing feat – they banded together for the Panama International Marathon with the goal of running under 3 hours and 50 minutes – read on to see if they accomplished their goal! The following are translations of guest blogs from 350 activists Raul Chang and Franco Fong from Panamá:
350 Trees for 350
On the morning of July 25, Panamá Más Verde and volunteers planted native trees to promote the 350 campaign. The original goal was to symbolically plant 350 trees, but by the end we had planted almost double that amount.
The reforestation project was part of an initiative of the Panama Canal and the NGO PRODERENA to restore the watershed in the area. This was also the first activity about 350.org in Panama. Saludos más verdes desde Panamá – Greener greetings from Panama!
Running under 3:50 in Panama City
On August 9, The Panama International Marathon was celebrated along the beautiful coastline of Panama City, Panama. Main drives and tollways were owned by marathon runners on a very tropical Sunday morning.
So a week before the race, I came up with the idea of participating with a coed team in the 5k relay event along the marathon route. As a member of the Ultimate Frisbee Panama association and a local organizer of 350.org activities, our team was named Ultimate Panama 350.
Having not trained for the event, we came in with low expectations trying to do the race in less than 4 hours, yet I kept thinking if a group of guys and girls like us could just push more and put a time below, of course, below the 3:50 mark…
So the race started and as each leg passed, our team grew stronger and under a strong committment everyone did their best. We supported each other throughout the route and when all was done we celebrated and wore our 350 tees proud 😉
In the end, the Ultimate Panama 350 team made it in 3:31:13, way under 3:50!
If a bunch of us, could just come together, support each other and commit to do our best, we can do it for sure towards a really important goal as we have with the 350.org movement. It’s simply about bringing the best of everyone of us and together striding strong to the finish line.