For the past year Trisha has been volunteering and mentoring at Coffee Creek Correctional Center. This is her story of getting involved and how it lead to a new tradition of a 5km Race for the Cure event at the prison.Prison for me all began with a dog named Chewy.
In September 2006, both my kids headed off to school and I was asking God what I should do with my newly discovered free tim
e. Somewhere in the back of my mind, the idea of teaching a computer or business class in prison surfaced. I don’t know why God placed prison on my heart. My only previous experience with Department of Corrections had been when I took a wrong turn while going to Ibach Park. I accidentally ended up at
Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville thinking the lights and expansive parking lot must indicate that the kids and I had arrived at the park.
NOT!
I shared to my friends a desire to get involved in some way with the prison and the female inmates. All too soon it was May and I still hadn’t made any effort to move forward. Marnie, a friend of mine kept prompting me to take action and contact the prison, but I brushed her off: I was too busy, not prepared, I’ll do it next month.
Turns out God was getting tired of my excuses too. In June, Darin was running a
race on Father's Day in Tigard. While we were at the finish line waiting for him, the kids spotted a puppy, Chewy, and couldn’t resist petting and playing with him. I exchanged smiles with Chewy’s owner, a petite Korean woman, named Christina. We share
d that usually we were both at church on Sunday mornings. Christina then began to tell me about her ministry with
Oregon Women’s Prison Ministry (OWPM) and her calling to "love on" female inmates. I mentioned that during the past year I had been thinking about getting involved somehow at the prison.
This was more than enough of an opening for both God and Christina. Christina immediately told me I needed to come to prison with her, in fact she could arrange for me to go that very week. I was somewhat taken aback – I mean things aren’t supposed to happen this fast and of course I felt I still had to ponder and pray. Really it was just continued inaction on my part, but thankfully God is patient and persistent.
I met with Christina over the summer. When the kids were back in school again, I joined OWPM, volunteering with the female inmates every week during the Tuesday chapel services in the medium/maximum security facility at Coffee Creek.
This past spring, at the request of some of the inmates I met, I started a jogging group. We call it a jogging group since the term ‘
running’ has other connotations in the prison environment :-) .
This group is not connected with OWPM. My dream for the jogging group was for us to meet and jog together out on the prison yard, but due to safety concerns about having a volunteer on yard with the general prison population, this was not an option.
So I meet with 12 inmates twice a month in a classroom setting. We’ve covered topics such as nutrition, speed work, hydration, and the Olympics. The women ask me questions about topics such as injuries, protein drinks, running shoes, that I then research for them.
The inmates record their mileage in jogging journals and I must say they are an inspiring group of ladies. They jog on the prison yard, which basically consists of a concrete ‘sidewalk’ around a patch of sand and some picnic tables – I so want to take them out on the trails, since their scenery consists of rows of chain link fences and razor wire. Ten laps around the yard equals a mile. And if an inmate is in lock down and can’t get out to jog, some of them do their jogging on the spot in their cells. The inmates have aptly named our group the
Concrete Gazelles.
In August we were discussing upcoming races and the group
mentioned
Race for the Cure. I asked if they wanted to participate in the race and all of them were enthusiastic about it. Of course we would have to do the race on the prison exercise yard. I talked to the Coffee Creek program administration staff and they were extremely positive (big thank-you to Liz and Amanda) – we were even able to offer the inmates ice water (something that isn’t normally available). And since the yard would be only open to race participants, I would be allowed to jog with and support the women. Once again I was amazed at how fast everything came together – we only had approximately a month lead time to coordinate the event and everything went incredibly smoothly.
Next I talked to the Susan Komen Foundation (Race for the Cure organizers). They were extremely positive (a big thank-you to Caity McKean). Since the inmates have very limited funds, the Komen Foundation offered a reduced registration rate. I really didn’t want this to be a free event. The goal was for the inmates to take it seriously and have pride in giving back to the community.
We put the word out in the inmates’ newsletter and over 75 women signed up and they raised close to $400. It was a blast for me to go down to the Race for the Cure expo and pick up all those race numbers. Due to prison regulations the women weren’t permitted to have the race t-shirts or commemorative pins, but they were allowed to keep their bib numbers and the signs on which they could write who they were jogging in memory of/celebration of.
We were able to do the race the same day as the outside world, on Sunday September 21 at 1pm. Decked out in an orange safety vest and wielding a ‘
Go Girls’ sign, I was honored to be out on the J/K yard to jog with and cheer on the women. I taped their numbers (no safety pins allowed) on their shirts and poured out cup after cup of ice water. The inmates did 31 laps to make the 3.1 mile race distance and it was very cool to see many of them work hard. And even more exciting, one of the inmates participating was a breast cancer survivor. It was a treat for me to jog with the inmates from the jogging group and talk to them about their running experiences. In the end we made a high five cheering line for the last of the women completing the race and some of the inmates asked even me to sign their bib numbers.
The positive attitudes and excitement demonstrated how such an event can bring people together, whether inside or outside prison walls.
Thank-you to all who were praying and supporting us and the event.
Please let me know if you have any ideas for running related topics that I can discuss with the group or good running related movies (
Darin's note: running related movies link here).
Sunday morning the crew headed down for the Run Like Hell 5 km race. I was running with James as he tried for a personal record (PR) in the distance. For the last month and a bit James has been working hard with a training plan I drew up for hill towards the 5 km race today. I have been using Google Calendar for drafting up the training plans for a couple friends and it is working out quite nicely. Michele was also out to race the course.
had predicted James would run 6:53s so I thought this might be a little fast but the footfall and breathing sounded good so lets see what happens. Through the turnaround and to mile two with no major changes: striding out on the flat (most of it) and using the little ups and downs as mental pushes to keep the pace up.
e. Somewhere in the back of my mind, the idea of teaching a computer or business class in prison surfaced. I don’t know why God placed prison on my heart. My only previous experience with Department of Corrections had been when I took a wrong turn while going to Ibach Park. I accidentally ended up at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville thinking the lights and expansive parking lot must indicate that the kids and I had arrived at the park. NOT!
This past spring, at the request of some of the inmates I met, I started a jogging group. We call it a jogging group since the term ‘running’ has other connotations in the prison environment :-) .
mentioned Race for the Cure. I asked if they wanted to participate in the race and all of them were enthusiastic about it. Of course we would have to do the race on the prison exercise yard. I talked to the Coffee Creek program administration staff and they were extremely positive (big thank-you to Liz and Amanda) – we were even able to offer the inmates ice water (something that isn’t normally available). And since the yard would be only open to race participants, I would be allowed to jog with and support the women. Once again I was amazed at how fast everything came together – we only had approximately a month lead time to coordinate the event and everything went incredibly smoothly.
The bodybuilding competition was the Seven Feathers Classic at the Seven Feathers Casino in Canyonville, Oregon. Our friend Ronda was competing so we went down to give moral and verbal support. It was inspiring to see all the athletes dedication and commitment. I was also glad I had done my push-ups earlier in the day so I could at least pretend I had some muscle definition :-) . Ronda did great finishing 3rd in her height class. If you are interested in more details read her blog here.
and Mary riding solo.
The ride is at a nice time of the year with a reasonable price ($45), with weather that will generally cooperate. It is a scenic but challenging, rolling course. The lunch was tasty: chili, salad and baked potatoes washed down with apple cider...really quite good. Chocolate milk at the last aid station brought me back from the dead.
For more details on other projects and how to volunteer click on the Rebuilding Together logo.
weather was perfect. We trudged in and tackled the blackberries, rose bushes, figs, clematis and fruit trees that had taken over the yard.
With three hours of good, hard work the team cleared out the vegetation, pruned the trees, weed whacked the shrubs and mowed the lawn. The garden path was cleared, the deck was swept and the gutters were emptied of the accumulated dirt and leaves.
Tiny downhill to start and the same uphill to finish.
for 230 feet of gain. But you can also see why I was able to run the last mile so fast :-) With all my whining about the 5 miler...I guess you can tell I want to do it again as it was tough and fun!
I met up with Kris around mile 19.5. She was running just behind the 3:35 pace group but needing to focus to continue to make it to the finish with a Boston time. We synced up and headed to the finish. At mile 21, Trisha and Ronda cheered, took pictures and provided gels.
It was the annual Jog-a-thon for the kid's school today. The kids collect pledges for the number of laps they are going to run and then the school collects the pledges to bolster their budget. The kids have fun, the school gets money: everyone wins!
I have been talking to my friends this week who are about to tackle the Portland marathon. This got me to thinking about the race and the lessons I have learned from running this race in 2004 and 2006...where I made several mistakes that lead to less than great times. Hopefully these will help people out to have a great race on Sunday.
e faster than your goal pace until you top out on the bridge. This will be hard to do.
Once you tackle the hill to the bridge, there is lots of time and opportunity to finish strong.
A large cadre of Eclipse demo camps (27 listed so far) are being organized for November and December.
The EclipseCon 2009 (March 23rd - 26th, 2009, in Santa Clara, California) submissions open up on October 6, 2008. Please take some time to consider submitting a proposal in one of the many categories and types of presentations. I especially would encourage you to consider the Committer and Contributor category which I am the lead for again this year. The goal of the Committer and Contributor category is:
