Day 1: New York City

The day kicked off on the north lawn of the United Nations, well before the start of business for most New Yorkers. Twenty impetuous runners; loads of photographers, writers, well-wishers; and one two-time Academy Award®–winning actress gathered to celebrate the inaugural day of the Blue Planet Run. The crowd and press excitedly milled about as the runners stretched out and sunned themselves on the lawn.

When Hilary Swank arrived, things got moving. Flashbulbs pulsed and people started to talk about the 1.1 billion people who have died to date because of unsafe drinking water. Swank was joined onstage by Jin Zidell, founder and chairman of the Blue Planet Run Foundation; Amir Dossal, executive director of the United Nations Fund for International Partnerships; and Andrew Liveris, CEO of the The Dow Chemical Company.

The speakers come from different walks of life, but one thing remained the same for all—the absolute imperative to bring safe drinking water to 200 million people by 2027 and to start right there at that very moment.

Mary Chervenak from Winston-Salem, NC - the teams first runner and an employee of Dow - excitedly burst through the crowd to take the first steps of the journey for safe drinking water.

The same sense of urgency spurred on the 20 runners, beginning with Mary Chervenak, who ran off the stage and through the streets of Manhattan with arms pumping. The spirit carried on with her fellow runners on the Blue and Green teams—Richard Johnson, Victor Lara Ricco, Melissa Moon, Taeko Terauchi (Blue); Jason Loutitt, Simon Isaacs, Dot Helling and Laura Furtado (Green)—who persevered through 90-degree heat, sporadic downpours and a few bolts of lightning over the next eight hours.

After the ceremony with the runners, school teacher Jody Kennedy and her students her Global Run program presented a check for $3,417 to the Blue Planet Run water fund, money raised through their Fashion for a Cause fashion show fundraiser.

All the climate hiccups were quickly forgotten as the team met 5-year-old Nicholas at a Greenwich, Conn., McDonald’s. Or when Isaacs explained the Run and its message in Spanish to a young female Laundromat employee from Honduras in Bridgeport. These amazing moments — when the team transformed from runners to global messengers — kept their spirits high, their feet fleet, their smiles wide and their collective will strong.

Dot Helling of Montpelier, VT ran her leg through light rain in Westchester County.

Though our evening has come to a close in Rocky Hill, Conn., runners Sunila Jayaraj, Brynn Harrington, Sean Harrington and Lansing Brewer are continuing to carry a message of hope that there is a tangible solution to the global water crisis on through the night.