July 14th will see the inaugural race 4 Miles For Kenya take place in Monument. This unique race has been brought about by the efforts of three UCCS cross country and track athletes along with their coach, Mark Misch. Proceeds from the race will benefit the Harambee Foundation, a fund set up to benefit the Grace of God Children's Project, an orphanage in the rural village of Kaptagat, Kenya.

The history behind the instigation of the fund is an interesting one. The NCAA allows different teams to travel internationally for a given amount of time once every few years, and as such the UCCS men's cross country team was presented with the opportunity to travel to a location of their choice. Being a hub for internationally renowned distance runners, Kenya seemed the logical option for a group of runners. In 2012 elite Kenyan runner David Cheromi, an acquaintance to the team, offered the men wishing to go a place to stay at the Grace of God Children's Project in his home village of Kaptagat.  

After raising funds to enable those wishing to make the trip, last December Misch along with UCCS runners Luke Dakin, David Marino and Robert Scrivner made the journey across the globe to visit the orphanage and left with an established a connection between UCCS and Grace of God Children's Project. During their stay, Dakin, Misch, Marino and Scrivner learned of the orphanage's need for not only basic necessities of day to day life like electricity and clean water, but, of almost equal importance, teachers for the local Cheptigit Primary School, where many of the orphanage's children were enrolled as students. As a result, the Harambee Foundation was born.

"Initially when we left we were just going to raise money to bring in more teachers and that was sort of going to be the end of it," said Dakin, now the CEO of the foundation, "but it kept evolving, and now we've developed a partnership with the school."

Being in the world's biggest running mecca, during their nearly three week stay, the four did their fair share of running with local runners. But on top of that, they also spent time the kids, helped with chores and maintenance of the buildings and grounds, and worked on filming a documentary showing day to day life in Kenya. The group set up a blog to log their first-hand accounts of their experiences, which can be seen at http://harambeexc.blogspot.com.

"Our group was really moved by the experience and we wanted to give back in any ways that we could," Dakin explained.

While they were there, possibly one of the more impacting experiences for the orphanage's kids was when the four purchased Harambee the cow as a gift for the orphanage.

"That was kind of our first big thing that we did," said Dakin. "To most Americans, a cow probably seems like a pretty unimportant contribution. But it's one of the most important contributions that we made. Milk is one of their main sources of nutrition, by giving someone a cow you're giving them 10 years worth of nutrition."

Even better, Harambee is due to give birth to a calf later this summer. In Kenya, a cow is a gift that keeps giving.

Upon their arrival back in America before the start of the spring semester at UCCS, the men made it their mission to raise enough money to hire enough teachers to bring the Cheptigit's student-to-teacher ratio from 50 to 1 down to 30 to 1.

During their initial months back in the States, they started by hosting Kenyan Dinner Night, wherein they cooked Kenyan food and catered to a crowd of 75 people. The desired outcome of the fundraiser was to raise $4,000, it raised $4,600.

The money sees to not only the basic needs of the children, school, and orphanage, but will also enable children to continue their education beyond the 8th grade. While schooling is free up until that point, to continue on to secondary school costs around $625 per year, a fee that is far above and beyond what can be afforded by many.

Their efforts brought about tremendous results for both the Grace of God Children's Project and Cheptigit Primary, and will continue to do so for years to come. In addition to monetary support, a shoe donation program has been set up, where hundreds of pairs of gently used running shoes have been sent overseas to benefit the up-and-coming young runners in the area.

"Our garages and balconies are loaded with shoes. We sent our first shipment of shoes to the Chepkero Athletic Club last April," said Dakin.

A teacher-exchange program has also been set up between UCCS and Cheptigit Primary School where UCCS students enrolled in teaching programs can go to the village to teach or serve as teacher's assistants at the school.

"We asked our friends here if they would be interested in taking a similar trip and we received really positive feedback," Dakin added.

Four Miles for Kenya will be just one more event in a series of efforts made by those behind the Harambee Foundation to continue to help the children, school, and orphanage get one step closer to self-sufficiency.

To sign up for the race, go to http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=2100267. To learn more about the remarkable efforts of the Harambee Foundation, check out http://www.pulltogetherforkenya.org/.