For Good Cause
By Marion Harmon
The people of CSU, Chico don’t hesitate to support good causes. Each year, thousands of students get involved with volunteer efforts—from class projects, like the six Chico students who cleaned and painted the Butte Humane Society shelter in April—to special programs, like the 12 students who spent their Alternative Spring Break with the homeless in Washington, D.C., to better understand homelessness and apply that knowledge to people in Chico. Faculty and staff also get involved in numerous charitable undertakings, such as facility reservations coordinator Cheryl Thomas, who has been a Red Cross volunteer since 1995 and twice went back to areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina as an emergency resource vehicle driver, taking hot food and supplies to victims of the disaster.
In addition to lending a helping hand, fund-raising for good causes is common. Students, faculty, staff, and alumni raise thousands of dollars for such worthy causes as cancer education and research at the annual Relay for Life that takes place on the Chico campus and nationwide each June. Here we join some recent volunteers from among our campus community who are raising awareness and funding for those in need. Photos by Thomas Del Brase.
An Inch at a Time
Kimihiko Nomura teaches Japanese—the language and the culture—at CSU, Chico. “In Japanese culture, one grain of rice is valued as a whole harvest of rice,” says Nomura. “Without that grain of rice, the whole harvest wouldn’t have happened. If we remove one person from this human race, then the entire human race is no longer complete.”
Nomura also teaches about love and hope. When we help one person, he says, we are helping the whole human race, and in this way, we leave a better place for the people who come after us.
“How can we live in a consciously healthful way?” asks Nomura. “How can we support a sustainable way of life? How can we care for our loved ones who are living with cancer? How do we contribute to the quality of life of all our community members who are bravely facing the unexpected? The answer is grain by grain, life by life, and inch by inch.”
During the past four years, Nomura worked on giving, inch by inch, metaphorically and literally. He had grown his hair to donate to Locks of Love, a nonprofit organization that provides wigs to cancer patients. Several of his colleagues have been diagnosed with cancer in recent years, and he wanted to find some way to help and to raise awareness about this terrible disease. “I wish I had millions of dollars so I can make some difference, but I don’t,” he says. “But I had plenty of hair!”
After growing his hair to below his waist, Nomura organized a campus fund-raiser, proceeds from which benefited Cancer Connections, the local cancer support program through Enloe Cancer Center, and the Japanese Program Scholarship Fund. The May 13 event, where Nomura and four others had their hair cut, included lessons in tai chi and origami, karaoke singing and Japanese food, and discussions of healthy eating and living. Nomura’s haircut was enough to produce six wigs for cancer patients.
The Japanese-born Nomura, who received his doctorate from Northern Arizona University, came to Chico in 1991 and is known for infusing Japanese culture into his teaching. Most recently, he was instrumental in developing a new minor in Japanese that enrolled students for the first time in the fall. He was named CSU, Chico's Outstanding Teacher for 2006–2007.
Nomura’s passion for teaching was one of the characteristics mentioned most often by students and colleagues in his nomination letters. “The entire world is his classroom,” says Sara Cooper, Nomura’s colleague. “Incredibly, Kimi has his textbooks committed to memory, so whether in class or answering a cell phone call while walking across campus, he is able to answer a student’s questions and point her to the textbook page number where more clarification can be found.”
Cooper also notes, “Professor Nomura is always searching for ways to enrich the lives and learning experience of his students.”
Anyone spending a little time talking with Nomura would know that each one of us can make a difference, inch by inch.
Cycling to End AIDS
David Miller (left) and Tray Robinson training on a country road in North Chico at the end of April
 |
Seven years ago, Tray Robinson’s older brother Karl died from AIDS. At the time, Tray didn’t know much about his brother’s battle with the disease—how he caught HIV, how long he had it, how much he suffered before succumbing to kidney failure.
“I didn’t know that he was positive for a long time,” says Robinson, who has worked at CSU, Chico since graduating in 1995 with a BA in liberal studies and is coordinator of university diversity efforts. “We never really talked about it as a family, and I never really talked with him about it. I felt that was a missed opportunity between him and me for support and education.”
Ever since his brother passed away, Robinson has wanted to do something to help with the fight against AIDS. When he saw a documentary on the AIDS/LifeCycle last year, he said he was blown away. “I thought, I need to do this. The whole experience seemed so overwhelming and so positive.”
Motivated to do something in memory of his brother, Tray decided to do the ride in 2007. The AIDS/LifeCycle (www.aidslifecycle.org), co-produced by the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center, is designed to help end the pandemic and human suffering caused by AIDS. Each year, about 2,000 riders spend seven days in June riding from San Francisco to Los Angeles; to participate, they must raise at least $2,500.
While the ride is mostly flat with some hilly terrain, it is 545 long miles, and riders average 78 miles a day. Training months in advance is a must, so Robinson had to come up with a plan. When he volunteered at the City of Gold Triathlon in Oroville in May 2006, he saw race participant David Miller, a CSU, Chico building services engineer with whom Robinson used to work in University Housing. Robinson asked Miller to help him train for the AIDS ride.
Thus began a year’s worth of training, together and alone. While the 35-year-old Robinson is quite fit—he has played football all his life and regularly works out—he hadn’t ridden a bike for long stretches. Miller, who’s 48, became a triathlete six years ago after having been out of shape and following a fitness regimen.
“We did our first ride the end of May 2006,” recalls Robinson. “That was the day there were electrical storms and we lost power in Chico. It was horrible, and we were wondering if it was a sign. We rode about 15 miles. That was the first time I’d ever ridden past 10 miles.”
After training together for a while, Miller also decided to do the ride. “I’ve learned a lot about AIDS in this process,” he says. “I think that’s part of the whole effort—it’s not just to raise money but also to get people like me who are mostly unaware of the situation to find out what it’s all about.”
A master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, Miller’s bike riding was interrupted for a few weeks this April when he went to Germany for reserve training. “I was in Iraq four years ago, and it really changed my life,” says Miller. “I saw a lot of carnage and bad things happening, and I made a decision to help any way I could.”
On June 3, well trained and excited to embark on their journey, the two set off with their fellow riders from the Cow Palace in San Francisco. The cyclists rode through eight counties, talking with local residents and media to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS and promote HIV prevention.
Robinson was struck with the sense of community that developed on the ride. The event that affected him the most, he says, was the candelight vigil on the beach in Santa Barbara, when 3,000 people formed a circle and, in complete silence, raised their candles to the sky. Then one by one, they walked to the ocean and put their candles out in the water. “I’d never experienced something like that in my life,” says Robinson. “It was so overwhelming.”
When the last of the 2,300 riders and 500 volunteers rolled into West Los Angeles on June 9, they had raised $11 million, $3 million more than last year. Robinson exceeded his personal $5,000 goal by raising $7,686, and Miller raised more than $3,000.
The two were a little sore but say their bodies and bikes performed well. “We trained properly, and it paid dividends,” says Miller. “It feels good to give a bit of my time and energy to help others.”
Robinson said he felt some closure after having done the ride and will continue being involved in HIV/AIDS awareness efforts. He’s already signed up for next year’s ride, with a goal of $10,000. When asked what he was going to do the weekend following the LifeCycle, Robinson replied, “I’m going to ride my bike!”
A Trek for Fitness
Skye Dunn not only walks the talk, he skates, bikes, and dribbles it. The 31-year-old kinesiology graduate student will spend much of a year promoting physical activity by walking, rollerblading, kayaking, dancing, and dribbling a basketball from the Pacific to the Atlantic via the American Discovery Trail.
Dunn’s incredible journey began June 4 with a dip in the Pacific Ocean near Golden Gate Vista Point. Then, about 50 friends, family members, classmates, and schoolchildren walked across the bridge with him as he began his trip. His main motivation? Publicizing the need for children to receive quality physical education. Along the way, he’ll stop at as many schools as he can to speak to students, teachers, and parents about the importance of exercise and physical education reform.
Dunn (BA, Physical Education, ’05) sees instilling the importance of physical activity in young people’s minds as key in fighting obesity. “Quality physical education helps students develop the skills, knowledge, and desire they need to be active now and for the rest of their lives,” he says.
The long trek, which ends in March 2008, will cover about 5,000 miles at 20 miles a day. The American Discovery Trail stretches from Point Reyes, north of San Francisco, to Cape Henlopen State Park in Delaware and is the nation’s only nonmotorized coast-to-coast trail. He’ll be joined by the Skye-Walkers, some of his closest friends: Shannon Morton, her brother Christopher, Jessica Sid, and Casey Sylvester. The support team will rotate legs of the journey, traveling with Dunn and driving an RV with equipment, clothes, and food.
Dunn is making a serious commitment of his time and energy because obesity is a serious health concern in this country. In 2005, every state but four had obesity prevalence rates higher than 20 percent, and 17 states had rates of 25 percent or higher, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Overweight children and adolescents are more likely to become obese as adults. Data from two National Health and Nutrition Examination surveys (1976–1980 and 2003–2004) show that the prevalence of overweight in children is increasing: for children aged 2–5 years, prevalence increased from 5 percent to 13.9 percent; for those aged 6–11 years, prevalence increased from 6.5 percent to 18.8 percent; and for those aged 12–19 years, prevalence increased from 5 percent to 17.4 percent.
For Dunn, the answer to fighting obesity in adults is to start young. He emphasizes teaching healthy individual activities that children can keep up for a lifetime rather than the more traditional P.E. activities like team softball, timed mile, or rope climb. Dunn isn’t against team sports; he just encourages those like basketball, which can be played anywhere a hoop is set up and doesn’t require a lot of people to play, like football or baseball. “Students should be active a majority of the time during their P.E. class and should learn activities they will continue to enjoy after their education,” he says.
While exercise is his main emphasis, Dunn will also speak to schools about the relationship of exercise with nutrition. An example he uses is how much energy it takes to burn off one M&M candy. “You’d have to vigorously dance for 31 seconds or walk the length of a football field,” he notes. “A lot of people understand that you don’t want to take in too many calories and exercising is good to burn them off, but they may not realize that you have to jump rope 14 minutes to burn off a can of soda.” A nutritious diet, of course, is a big part of maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
A big help to Dunn in preparing for the trip was CSU, Chico Professor Cathrine Himberg, director of the Center for Advancement of Standards-based Physical Education Reform (CASPER). Through the University-affiliated nonprofit organization, Himberg helped secure needed sponsors and created a pledge of commitment for Responsible Educators Accountable for Learning (REAL). By taking the REAL Physical Education Teachers’ Pledge, available on the CASPER Web site (www.csuchico.edu/casper/recognition/pledge.html), teachers commit to supporting education in schools that promotes healthy physical activity.
So far, more than 500 teachers from all 50 states have made the pledge. The Skye-Walkers hope to gather 5,000 by the time Dunn reaches Delaware. They will deliver the pledges to the National Association for Sport and Physical Education headquarters and the Surgeon General’s office in Washington, D.C., to request support for quality, standards-based physical education in schools.
Students and teachers at schools across the world may sign up to be Skye-Walkers and participate in a Skye-Walkers Challenge to get children moving and make them aware of Skye the P.E. Guy, his journey, and his mission to promote physical activity and quality physical education. Businesses and individuals may adopt classes or schools and provide them with pedometers to use for this challenge and subsequent activities. For more information, go to www.csuchico.edu/casper/skye/index.html. |
