Tri-ing to End Homelessness

by Shannon Moriarty

Published November 01, 2008 @ 09:17AM PT

[Tri-ing = swimming, biking, and running to end homelessness!]

Two years ago, Robyn Fehrman decided to turn her triathlon training into force for helping others. Today, her effort has generated over $13,000 in support for her local family homeless shelter. Along the way, she has gained a whole new perspective on the experience of giving back to her community. Today her campaign comes to an end as she competes in her longest race ever: a half-iron distance triathlon.

Robyn has always been a community activist. She works as a grant-maker at a community foundation and is active on the boards of several nonprofit organizations. So two years ago when she decided to invest her time in triathlon racing, she asked herself how she could turn a time-consuming athletic endeavor into a means of helping others. Her answer? A campaign called Tri to End Homelessness.

Robyn has trained *a lot* in the past two years. She has collected over $13,000 in donations for Genesis Home, a family homeless shelter in Durham, North Carolina. She has raised awareness about the issue of homelessness in her community. She has received local and national recognition for her campaign. And throughout her journey, she has reflected on the parallels between triathlon training and homelessness on her blog.

Here's a snippet from her Blog Action Day post:

My triathlon training and my passion to end poverty are linked. Both are rooted in three of the core beliefs I've written so much about over the last two years:

Nothing changes unless we do.

After running for more than 4 years - even training for 2 marathons - my times didn't change, until my training did. When I decided to change - my training system, my effort, my planning, my perspective, everything else did too.

Some say that poverty will always be with us. Unless, we - both those in power and those in poverty - change, I believe that will be true. But I also know that it doesn't have to be so. Both personal responsiblity and justice-centered systems change have a role to play. Yes, I want folks to pull themselves up by their bootstraps -- but you first have to have access to a boot.

Tiny steps, made faithfully, make a big difference.

Day to day I most often don't see the big improvement I wish I did. My training is very much 2 steps forward, 1 step back, 5 steps forward, 4 steps back, 1 giant leap forward, PLATEAU....2 steps back.....1 step forward.

But, year to year the difference is so, so clear. Reading my training journal from 2005 reminded me of that. Some things were the same: I still hate workout on Friday afternoons. My attitude has a huge affect on my workout for the day. But my confidence, my weight, my times, and the size of my goals were completely different.

I see Genesis Home's work to end homelessness in my hometown through the same lense. Some days Ryan (her husband, who is the director of Genesis Home) comes home and is absolutely convinced that his work is NOT making a difference. A child living at the shelter doesn't pass his end of grade tests, a parent gets arrested, a young adult loses her job...AGAIN.

But, then a family moves into a home of their own. A mom goes to college and a Dad opens his own business. A donor comes through with the right gift at the right time. Legislation passes to make more affordable housing available. Change happens.

It's all within us.

If I've learned anything from endurance sports, it's that everything I need, I already have. The ability is within me and I can. There is enough. I am enough.

The interval instantly becomes easier, the moment I remind myself that the air is there. The mile becomes shorter, as a soon as I remember that I've been here before and I've put in the work.

That abundance mentality is a powerful tool for ending poverty, too. Continuing to ask ourselves how much is enough helps free us from the fear-based notion that because I have to get mine, I can't help you get yours. And, knowing that the ability to make change is within us motivates to give, to volunteer, to protest, to write, to vote, to act.

Congratulations, Robyn! And best of luck today at the big race.

Remember: there is no limit to the number of ways you can get involved in doing good in your community and your world. If you're doing something unique to fight homelessness in your neck of the woods, I want to know about it. Email me at shannon@change.org.

[Full disclosure: I was very fortunate to know and work with Robyn when I was an employee at Genesis Home.]