Not-for-profit Blue Planet Run Foundation raises awareness of drinking water shortages around the world. They recruited runners from around the world to cross it. On foot. Their team has been running 24 hours a day for two months as they run the globe, going East from the United Nations in New York City.

Skype played played a role in recruiting and in supporting runners on the road.

"Skype's been a lifesaver" said Mary Chervenak, Dow chemist and Blue Planet Runner, at Oakland's Jack London Square today. Mary's been checking in her with husband Paul since she hit the road. With her headset and laptop, she stayed in touch from Europe, Russia, Mongolia, China, and Japan, without expensive phone bills. "The Internet is everywhere" she said, with cybercafes even in places with undrinkable water.

When she got food poisoning in Beijing, the grapevine exaggerated and scared her folks. With Skype she was able to assure Paul and her parents that she wasn't dying, staying online for an hour until everyone was reassured.

International recruiting is rarely easy and this was no exception.

BPR invited runners to apply last summer. Out of 300 applicants (willing to take off more than six months and to run for 24 hours every five days), they narrowed the field. 65 candidates from around the world were interviewed over the phone or in a Skype voice call, a half-hour each.

Finalists met a panel at BPR's for a Skype video interview. An hour long, the video interaction was important for assessing social and communication skills. These runners would speak to the news media, talk with children, meet celebrities for photo opps, and greet the public, goodwill ambassadors for BPR's message. Skype video let event producer Patricia Breed and the rest of the team assess social skills without flying anybody anywhere. Not-for-profits don't have money to burn and Skype made the difficult cheap, fast and feasible.

What could motivate anyone to give up the better part of a year to run 29 marathons as part of 24,456 kilometer / 15,200 mile trek?  

The lack of safe drinking water affects one-in-six people globally [1.1 billion people], and water-related illnesses are the leading cause of human sickness and death. 2.2 million people in developing countries, most of them children, die every year from diseases associated with lack of access to safe drinking water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene.

In many countries, the water problem is the primary reason people are unable to rise out of poverty. Women and children bear the burdens disproportionately, often spending six hours or more each day fetching water for their families and communities.

But there is hope. Proven solutions to the water problem currently exist, such as digging wells and rainwater harvesting. Proper funding and a collective will can make universal safe drinking water a reality.

— Blue Planet Run Foundation

See also:  

• Map of the 2007 Run route, list of the remaining cities and estimated dates/times 
• Prevention Magazine recognized Mary as a Health Hero; Mary contributed to O'Reilly's Astronomy Hacks
• Blue Planet Run photo library (slideshow) and Phil's snapshots at Jack London Square (slideshow)
• WaterWired blog - a great read on water policy and science
• Peer Water Exchange - incubator for programmes addressing potable water issues
• Dow's Seawater Desalination products, 2015 Sustainability Goals