Rehab through Running

The steam from the sewer rises through the grates, the only source of warmth on this cool morning. It's just after 5:30am and the streets are quiet except for the cooing of some foraging pigeons. The pigeons scatter as a pack of runners pound down the nearby pavement. These are no ordinary runners though. This pack is made up of a group of homeless men from a local shelter, and is led by a young blond female who just wants to make a difference.

Anne Mahlum, the young blond, is the creator of Back on My Feet, an organization which strives to rehabilitate the homeless through running. The idea for Back on My Feet came to Mahlum during an early morning run. Each morning she would run past the homeless shelter at 13th and Vine Street and wave to the few inhabitants who were up at that hour. Day after day and run after run, Mahlum continued to greet the men, who began to refer to her as “crazy runner girl”. One morning after their usual greeting Mahlum began to wonder why she got to be the runner and they had to stand on the sidelines. She wondered, “Why can’t we all just be runners?” And as simple as that Back on My Feet was created.



Within weeks Mahlum gave up her high powered PR job and went through all the steps to receive funding and support as a non-profit organization. Mahlum was able to get running shoes and gear donated from local companies, and many volunteers signed on to help with the organization and to join them on runs.. More difficult than that though was getting the nine initial men to sign up to run with her 3 mornings a week between 5:30 and 6am. The men who joined the group initially, admitted that they did so less out of a desire to run, but because Mahlum was “a pretty girl, and running with her was better than doing nothing”.

Unlike Mahlum these men were not runners, and the initial group runs were short and slow. Each labored breath from the runners was accompanied by encouraging words from Mahlum. Week after week she surprised the men as she returned to the shelter, and with each run the men’s confidence began to build as they worked towards their goal of running the Philadelphia Half-Marathon.

Joining the group is simple. The organization simply requires that participants be sober for at least 30 days and they must live in an affiliated shelter. As long as a resident meets the basic requirements and is willing to meet the group for the 5:30am runs, they are given a pair of sneakers and welcomed to the group. To date Back on My Feet currently works with five shelters in Philadelphia and has recently expanded to Baltimore, with proscpects in Washington DC. The Philadelphia chapters have seen over 100 homeless participants. Of these participants 15 have received job training and 22 have obtained jobs. 72 of these members have competed in a competitive race. How is it that all of this came out of a simple early morning run?

The beauty of the organization, according to Mahlum is that “ when you take people from different walks of life and put them in sneakers and running shorts, there is no distinguishing who is who. Observers do not see them as a group of homeless men, but as a bunch of guys out for an early morning run.” The members joke that they don’t care who is homeless and who is a volunteer, they simply care who is running the fastest.

Mahlum believes that she can give these men something more important than a hot meal, or a bed to sleep in; she can give them back their confidence. Mahlum reminds the men, “You have to move forward, one step at a time”.
Through running she tries to make the men see that they can overcome whatever boundries lay in their path; whether it be drug addiction or a 5 mile run across the Ben Franklin Bridge.

Confessions of a TV-a-holic...make that a Media-a-holic

I have no doubt that Gitlin would have a field day criticizing my TV habits. I will admit, without shame, that I probably spend around 7 hours a day in the vicinity of a television. I watch the 8’oclock hour of the Today Show, and the Ellen Degeneres show religiously. On any given night at least one of “my shows” is on. I try to watch the news at least once a day to get a feel for what is going on around me, and to listen for the weather report. Adding up just these things I would easily clock in at about 3.5/4 hours of TV viewing a day, or about 28 hours a week- more than a full day every week spent watching TV! Yikes right? Well as I said I easily clock an extra 2 or 3 hours everyday simply with having the TV on as background noise, watching an extra show because it is on right before or after one of “my shows”, watching the TV while I am at the gym, or catching bits and pieces of a show someone else is watching around me. Not only do I average about 7 hours a day of television, I probably spend around 4 hours a day on the Internet. Some of this time is spent on Blackboard for this class, but a good portion of it is dedicated to checking email, Facebook, People.com and MSNBC.com- and yes I do believe the MSNBC.com cancels out my addiction to People.com.

I am a self-proclaimed media-a-holic. I would rather not function without it, and if I was put in a position where I had to, I’m not sure how I would fair. My question, similar to an alcoholic or a drug addict is ‘how did I let this happen?’.
To a child growing up immersed in the culture of images, it appears the most natural thing in the world. It appears, in fact, to be nature. Expecting images and sounds to appear on command (or even when uncommanded or unwanted) feels as normal as expecting the sun to rise. Because it is so easy to change channels, scan for situations, surf, graze, click, go to another source of images and sounds, you assume that if you don’t like what you see or hear you can find something better. (Gitlin, 2002)
I think that that is part of my problem. I grew up in an era of media. I was socialized with television, computers, Nintendo, etc. My friends and I became friends discussing the merits of each member of New Kids on the Block, discussing the latest episode of the Mickey Mouse Club and Hey Dude, and trading tips on how to get the high-score in Duck Hunt. Media is as natural to me as the sun rising- it is much if not all of what I know.

I remember the summer between my sophomore and junior year in college, I spent the summer living and studying in Spain. During this time I did not own a TV and my Internet was limited to an hour each day- most of which was spent emailing friends and family back home. At the time I never thought I would have survived an entire summer without TV and Internet. But I did, and years later when I graduated college I spent two months backpacking across Europe, and once again I went without television and internet. Looking back, these were two of the best times of my life. Even though I wasn’t sure of Meredith and McDreamy’s status on Grey’s Anatomy, and I didn’t know if Lauren and Heidi were still friends on The Hills, I didn’t miss that part of my life. The time I would have spent in front of the television was spent touring historic buildings; exploring unknown cities and watching strangers go about their lives. I guess in a sense it was just another form of entertainment for my senses, but it was entertainment more similar to what Gitlin speaks of in Vermeer’s paintings. This time spent without media proves that it can be done, but could I do it without “rehab” in an exotic location?

If you asked me why I have to overindulge in media, I’d probably reason that it is a way to escape from life. While I read what is on the internet or watch a TV program, I can for the most part, forget about what is going on in my life, at least until the media somehow reminds me of what I am escaping. I think the media also keeps me grounded, as odd as it may sound. Of course I get envious when I see all of the designer possessions the women on Lipstick Jungle tote, or when I see how easy the girls on Gossip Girl have it. But later, when I watch the news and hear about how millions are losing their jobs, or how another innocent child or police officer was killed, it is easy for me to be grateful for what I do have.

Giving up media is hard. It is constantly around you. Even as I write this blog, holed up in the corner of Panera Bread, trying to escape the internet and TV at my house I am distracted my the Muzak they are piping through the restaurant. And even being away from my television I am safe in knowing that my TIVO is at home obediently recording “my shows”. And god- forbid the power goes out, or TIVO cuts off before the show is over, I know that I can go online tomorrow and watch the full show, almost commercial-free from the networks website.
We feel…that we have the right to be addressed by our media, the right to enjoy them, the right to admit faces of our choice into our living rooms and to enter into worlds without number, to follow them. We may not have the right to possess the beautiful faces and bodies we see there, the fortunes, the celebrity or power dangled before us, clamoring for our attention, but we have the right to want them, If we are let down, we have the right, almost the duty, to click and dip elsewhere at will. (Gitlin, 2002)

There is a commercial I saw recently, and I cannot remember what it was advertising, but it shows how emotionally attached people get to movies and television. In once scene a woman is crying at whatever situation the actor is portraying, in another scene a woman is yelling at the character in a horror movie. The commercial shows how attached we as viewers get to what we are watching. Part of the reason we watch certain shows it because they strike a cord with us- one of the characters reminds us of ourselves, the plot situation is similar to our lives. Gitlin writes, “we do demand something from our images, even if they are only “almost real”. We expect them to heighten life, to intensify and focus it by being better than real, more vivid, more stark, more something. We want a burst of feeling, a frisson of commiseration, a flash of delight, a moment of recognition”. (Gitlin, 2002)

I am a media-a-holic, and acknowledging that is the first step. I cannot say that I will give up television, but I will try to decrease the amount of time I spend watching ‘whatever is on”. I will still watch the Ellen Degeneres show because it guarantees me an hour of dancing and laughter, an escape from all of the seriousness in the world, but maybe I will try to not watch reruns, and instead read a book. I will still watch “my shows” in the evening because at this point I am invested in them, and as stupid as it may sound I do care what happens with Meredith and McDreamy, or what the next drama on Wisteria Lane will be, but I will make a conscious effort to turn the TV off when the program is over rather than watching whatever is on next. I will still check People.com everyday, but I will continue to counterbalance it with MSNBC.com and maybe some CNN.com sprinkled in.

Gitlin, T. (2002). Media Unlimited; how the torrent of images and sounds overwhelms our lives. New York, NY: Holt Paperbacks.