Sunday, August 16, 2009 8:47 PM CDT
COLUMN: 'Great story' linking mom running for son in Iraq still growing
By BILL LAIR, Managing Editor
blair@jg-tc.com
It’s been exactly a month since I last wrote about Charleston resident Vivian White’s running project while her son serves in Iraq.
And Vivian might as well be the Energizer Bunny because her story just keeps going and going and going.
In case you missed it, we first wrote in February about Vivian’s goal of running 6,400 miles this year.
That is the distance between Charleston and Kirkuk, Iraq, where her son, Army Pfc. Brian Bales, is stationed.
In Vivian’s mind, each mile she ran would be like “bringing Brian home.” And when she got to mile 6,400, it would be about the time her son’s deployment would end and he would be home.
But running 6,400 miles in 12 months is more than Vivian can do so she was open to help from family members and friends who also would run and contribute their miles to her.
Incidentally, that first story was published on Feb. 17. The second story was on July 17 and, voila, here we are on Aug. 17 for another update.
Sports Illustrated wrote about Vivian’s project and she soon had more than 14,000 miles in contributions from people all over the country.
I have had numerous people contact me about Vivian’s effort. I even got an e-mail from a guy in Germany.
One day, a producer from NBC’s Today Show contacted me about getting in touch with Vivian.
Well, the Today Show piece aired Thursday morning.
Vivian hadn’t expected it to air until this morning but Wednesday afternoon she was told that the story had been moved up.
“We heard from NBC last night that our Today Show video has been picked up by the MSNBC home page. We’ve had over 20,000 views already,” Vivian said Friday.
“It means the traffic to our story is going through the roof right about now.
“NBC executives sent us congratulations, and condolences — they said they suspect we’re going to have an awful lot of mail to go through!”
As of Thursday night, Vivian had received about 100 e-mails from people all across the country who saw the program. And she had phone calls from as far away as Oregon and Virginia.
The story tugs at the hearts of so many because almost all of us know of someone who has served in Iraq or Afghanistan and wish there was a way we could connect with that loved one or could turn nervous energy into something constructive.
As Vivian has said when she sometimes wants to skip running: “I think of Brian and realize he doesn’t get a day off in Iraq.”
The Today Show’s Bob Dotson added a new twist to Vivian’s tale.
He also interviewed Tammy Utley of upstate New York, whose son Nick served in Afghanistan and, like Vivian’s son Brian, is 20 years old.
“‘There’s nothing you can do for them,’ Tammy said. ‘You can’t be there with them. Mothers understand that helplessness you feel.’
“Vivian agrees. ‘How am I going to wake up every morning and not know whether my son’s alive or not?’”
“Tammy nods. ‘Is he coming home? Am I going to see him again? You sit and you wonder and you worry. You turn on the news and see everything that’s happening there. And you worry some more.’
“‘At those times,’ Tammy sighs, ‘when there’s nothing else you can do, you start walking or running. We are protecting our emotions, protecting how we feel, because we can’t protect our kids over there.’”
Tammy is the woman we wrote about last month who, when worrying about her son, went out walking one day and walked so long that her feet started bleeding. She went home, put on clean socks and went out walking some more because she didn’t know what else to do.
“Your story resonated with me since I attended EIU in the early ‘80s,” Michael Berke of Raleigh, N.C., wrote to me after the July 17 story.
“Long story short: I made contact with Vivian a few weeks ago and she has graciously decided to accept inline skating miles (I’m now in NC and joined an inline skate team at www.roadskater.net ). Every week we tabulate miles and send them on to Vivian. She halves them since we’re on wheels after all, but it is VERY rewarding to be a part of her worthy cause.”
And I got this message from a woman named Tonja Phetmisay in Boise, Idaho:
“I am the chair of our Garden City Chamber Fun Run this year and we would like to donate our miles to Vivian’s total. We have a 1-mile route and a 5K loop with an expectation of approximately 400 participants. Our event is on Oct. 10.”
She said that about half of the field will run the 5K and half will run the 1 mile.
“That works out to 820 miles total. (at least),” she wrote.
She said Vivian’s story also touched her.
“I am a mother of a son as well… and to think of him far, far away and in constant danger is heart wrenching,” she said.
“I am a runner and a late starter just as Vivian is. I loved the way she figured out the mileage and has done something to occupy her time and mind while her dear son is gone.
“They have connected over running and she is now connecting with others because of his efforts and her commitment to him,” Tonja said. “Great story!”
The “Bringing Brian Home” total now has topped 27,000 miles and is coming from all across the country.
Great story indeed.
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kamfong wrote on Aug 16, 2009 7:19 PM: