Former Park ranger takes on 175-mile run in Ethiopia

A former Glacier National Park seasonal ranger now serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Ethiopia recently took on a 175-mile run across northern Ethiopia to promote HIV awareness and education.

Sally Kintner, a Flathead Valley resident who worked at Glacier Park for several years and played in the Glacier Symphony, left for Ethiopia in October 2012.

She normally works in the town of Bonga, in Ethiopia’s humid southwest. So far she’s been learning two new languages and collaborating with local partners to empower girls, sustainably manage forests and promote better environmental education.

The Tigray Trek 282 is an eight-day, 282-kilometer run which a group of Peace Corps volunteers hope to complete between Oct. 30 and Nov. 7 — that’s about a marathon a day.

The run will raise funds for a local NGO called imagine1day and aims to reach hundreds of Ethiopian youths to promote the value of education and teach about avoiding HIV.

“This is going to be one of the most difficult things any of us ever does,” Kintner said. “But it’s also going to make some of the most incredible connections. Believe me, in Ethiopia, a group of Americans doing anything gets noticed. We hope that our visibility will help gather people and make them listen to this important message.”

Group members have raised around $4,000 to support imagine1day, which aims to sustainably support education in the Tigray region, where the run is taking place. Along the way, sessions will be held to discuss HIV transmission, as well as the motivational message of Peace Corps Ethiopia.

Sub-Saharan Africa has been very hard hit by the global AIDS pandemic, and Ethiopia has one of the highest numbers of people living with HIV in the world.

For more information, visit online at www.crowdrise.com/hawzeintoalamata/fundraiser and http://peacecorps.gov and www.imagine1day.org or e-mail sally.r.kintner@gmail.com.