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Carrying her own backpack: daughter of global activist, Stella Young joins On the Ground

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The message from Timothy Young to his six-year-old daughter Stella was clear: you’ll carry your own backpack, throughout the trip. About that he was adamant. The trip was to Chiapas, Mexico, in 2007 to meet rural coffee-growing communities which Higher Grounds Trading Co. supported through the Chiapas Water Project. That journey has now come full circle. A year after she graduated from Kalamazoo College, the 2018 Glen Lake School graduate recently became director of development for On the Ground, the international nonprofit co-founded in 2010 by her father and Higher Grounds owner Chris Treter. The organization has supported coffee farmers in Chiapas, Ethiopia and the Congo, and olive farmers in the Palestinian West Bank. On the Ground will host a party and fundraiser on Thursday, Oct. 12, at The Alluvion at Commongrounds in Traverse City.

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Timothy Young: locavore, social entrepreneur

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Food For Thought has played a critical role in the local foods movement here in Northern Michigan. But when he started the business out of his house south of Empire in 1995, Timothy Young was one of just a handful of pioneers in this niche market. The demand for local foods has exploded over the last decade, and Young’s business has expanded to 10 full-time, year-round employees and a spattering of part-time and seasonal employees.

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Solstice Runs benefit Glen Arbor Park Commission, Ethiopian schools

Endurance Evolution, the local marathon facilitator spearheaded by high school buddies Joel Gaff and Eric Houghton, will hold two races in Leelanau County this month to benefit good causes. On Saturday, June 15, athletes can run the Glen Arbor Solstice Half Marathon and 5K before the town’s BBQ and Brew festival, to benefit the Glen Arbor Park Commission.

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Nocturnal Solstice Run through Leelanau supports education in Ethiopia

Endurance Evolution and On The Ground have teamed up to raise funds to build a library in a remote village in Ethiopia. Area runners are invited to run The Solstice Run, which will travel from the northern tip of the Leelanau Peninsula to the beaches of West Grand Traverse Bay in Traverse City. Runners can choose the a full 40 miles, 20 miles, or a four-person relay (roughly 10 miles per runner).

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Run Across Ethiopia film premiers at State Theatre

The Glen Arbor Sun chronicled On the Ground’s Run Across Ethiopia this past January, as editor Jacob Wheeler joined a team of runners who traversed 250 miles across rural Ethiopia to raise money for fair-trade coffee farmers. Now “When We Run”, videographer James Weston’s documentary about Run Across Ethiopia, will premier this Saturday at 8 p.m. at the State Theatre as part of the Great Lakes Bioneers Conference.

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Run Across Ethiopia Highlights

On Jan. 20, a team of American runners with northern Michigan roots arrived in a coffee-growing village near Yirgachefe after running 250 miles over 12 days through Ethiopia’s ancient Rift Valley. Glen Arbor Sun editor Jacob Wheeler joined the Run Across Ethiopia and submitted reports, photos and videos from the trail.

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Run Across Ethiopia reaches the finish line

Late this morning Ethiopian time (eight hours later than in Michigan), the Run Across Ethiopia reached the rural hamlet of Afursa Waru, which is six miles from the coffee-rich town of Yirgachefe. A joyous, but meticulously planned celebration unfolded among local dignitaries, village elders and perhaps thousands of residents — who greeted the 10 American runners and six Ethiopian harriers who had completed a 250-mile jog over 12 days from Addis Ababa.

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What an Ethiopian village needs

Journalist Anne Stanton and I visited Hase Gola, the scene of yesterday’s raucous welcome celebration and the site of the first school that On the Ground Global will build here. Hase Gola is desperately poor and largely cut off from the outside world. The purpose of our visit was to meet local coffee farmers and learn about their daily life and needs, and how a school will help improve life in the village.

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Day 10: Run Across Ethiopia yields to Hase Gola

For the past nine days, my blogging has focused on running — that is, the 10 harriers running nearly 250 miles across southern Ethiopia. I’ve cataloged their aches and pains, daily mileage and terrain, and how the runners have interacted and boosted each other through this painstaking endeavor. In other words, I’ve been a sports reporter.

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Fruits of Ethiopia: coffee, khat, sugarcane and beautiful people

Here are a few videos that I’ve taken during the Run Across Ethiopia over the past week, which feature some of the best Ethiopia has to offer — and how to consume them.

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