Shakedown hike

Greetings.

Me and the relatives, at
Rattlesnake. Wilson is behind
me, hanging onto my belt.

It's less than six days away from the Madison Street Marathon, so I took time  Monday to get a little practice in by taking Wilson's relatives on a jaunt up Rattlesnake Ledge just outside of North Bend, WA. Part of the practice is proselytizing, and I'm not sure how successful I was, but there were some great moments.

Conversations can start spontaneously, when you're carrying eight One World Futbols, with a ninth bobbing along behind, attached to your belt. People notice that.

Among the ones who noticed were the two Jeffs.

The first Jeff told us he had worked for the state department in Africa and was allowed to take along soccer balls which he deflated so he could cram more into his limited luggage. Once he was in-country, he re-inflated them, and  filled them with self-sealing goop for the inevitable puncture. He knows the life of those soccer balls is limited, and well understood the value of unbreakable soccer balls. Jeff would have liked to know that there was a way to transport them deflated, to save space.

The second Jeff was walking by when I and my hiking companion, Mary Jane Gibson, took a lunch break. Jeff asked about the pile of futbols resting at my feet. He is planning his first climb of Mt. Rainier this summer and had a personal project: raising money for a heart fund.

At Rattlesnae Ledge a naturalist from Florida expressed curiosity about the futbols. When she found out about the mission of sending indestructible soccer balls to children in third-world environments, she urged us to contact a friend involved with Paramedics for Children, a Honduran charity. The friend would love having the One World Futbol to distribute, she said.

There were also three men whose curiosity took over as they passed us on our descent. One shared that he had spent a few weeks in Southeast Asia, including travels in Indonesia.

A couple that had had traveled all over the world recognized immediately the value of the One World Futbol. The man said he had visited bleak villages in Morocco, where a soccer ball was the toy that kept both adults and children entertained.

There were others. People who have been to the third world don't need an explanation. They notice how the other half lives, and we had a clear sense that, if they could make a difference, they would want to.

There were other things we learned on the shakedown hike: The eye-bolts I use to string the balls together don't pull out, and the thread tying them together doesn't wear out easily. But as light as they are, carrying those futbols does put a strain on the shoulders more than a backpack does. It will be interesting to see how that works out over the 27-mile Madison Street Marathon that I, Wilson, and Wilson's eight relatives take on Sunday, March 15, the Ides of March.

Love,

Robert,
Wilson,

and the relatives.