Every 90 minutes of every day, a baton carrying the message “water is life” is passed from one runner to the next. Most of the time, this exchange occurs on the side of a quiet road. Other times, it occurs outside a pub with a few onlookers… and every so often, at historic public places, such as Trafalgar Square in London with a significant captive audience and media. Click here for a list of exchanges at a city near you. In addition to these large public venues, we are visiting a number of sites of our presenting sponsor, Dow.

At 6:00 AM outside of Stade, I was met by Thomas and Frank, two Dow employees who joined me for the first 5 miles of my leg. As we ran, we chatted about the run. They seemed to know every intimate detail of what we are doing – tracking all of our progress online and on TV, the knew each member of the team and many of the stories from the road. Their enthusiasm about the Blue Planet Run and Dow’s support was touching.

Once we reached Stade, it was clear that Thomas and Frank aren’t alone in their excitement. At the site, we were met by more than 300 employees and their families. There was a fun run, speeches, food and music. With the exception of our kick-off at the UN in New York, it was by far the best reception yet. What made it so wonderful, was not the pomp-and-circumstance surrounding the arrival of the baton, but the general mood of the Dow-community. They were proud of us runners, proud of Dow for its support of the Run, and proud of Dow for it’s commitment to addressing the water crisis and other issues.

For me, engaging Dow’s employees through events such as this is an important way to help the company continue on a path towards sustainability. With the Stade event, we are off to a great start.

>From Dresden, Germany – happy trails