Day 14: Stade, Horneburg and Hamburg, Germany

200 runners from a Stade community running club join Heiko Weiner on the road at the Stade Dow facility

STADE
In Stade, Dow pulled out the stops for a special exchange hosted at the local Dow facility. As Heiko rounded the corner into the Dow grounds, he was greeted by 200 local running-club members, including a bunch of school kids, doing the wave. Like the Pied Piper, Heiko led the running-club members for two kilometers until he came to the stage, whereupon balloons were released into the air. What a fantastic celebration! [More Photos from Stade]

75 school kids from the nearby Johann-Hinrich Pratje Realschute Horneburg school cheer on Simon as he runs into the Horneburg exchange point

HORNEBURG
The 9 a.m. exchange-point location was nothing particularly notable — it was off a semi-busy road, not in the middle of any town; but what made it truly exceptional was the crowd of school kids that greeted Team Orange as they drove up. There were about 75 kids, ages 15 to 17, from the Johann-Hinrich Pratje Realschule in Horneburg who came to this early exchange point with their three teachers. The kids, who were learning about environmental issues in class, were so excited, waving and cheering as Simon reached the www.planetrun.org banner. Sean Harrington and Simon read the message in English, and Brynn Harrington did it in German.

Simon and Sean salute safe drinking water in Horneburg

Here’s what Team Orange had to say about the students:
BRYNN: The kids were genuinely interested in learning about the importance of safe drinking water, which was really cool. 
LANSING: Their enthusiasm and excitement were inspiring, and will help get me through my run to Hamburg today!
SUNIL: It was terrific that their teacher encouraged them to get involved in the safe-drinking-water cause and supported their interest in coming to visit. Seeing these kids made my day!

HAMBURG
Talk about pulling teeth! Team Orange and Heiko had a heck of a time convincing northern Germans to take an interest in the baton exchange in the lovely Alster Park in Hamburg this afternoon. Some interested parties peered at the ceremony, and some took stickers; some even stopped for a few minutes to learn about the event and the cause. Regardless, Brynn and Heiko entertained the passersby with safe-drinking-water facts and donation information.

Students from Johann-Hinrich Pratje Realschute Horneburg school pose with the Blue Planet Runners after the baton exchange ceremony