Founder / Executive Director
Moscow Marathon Project
In 1985, at the height of the cold war, I created the Moscow Marathon Project to catalyze USA-USSR collaboration to end hunger in the developing world. Six years later, at the end of 1990, we successfully wrapped up the Project after Presidents Bush & Gorbachev jointly announced the formulation of three third-world development initiatives. During the course of the Project, we raised over $2 million for The Hunger Project from over 10,000 people in 14 countries, had more than 1,400 runners participate in one or more of six annual marathons (5 in Moscow and the last in the 1990 Seattle Goodwill Games), and received ample political and media attention in both countries. Those of us who ran, raised money, gave money, generated publicity, and met with politicians during that time like to think we played a role in building the momentum that took the Berlin Wall down and ended the cold war. For all of us who participated in the Moscow Marathon Project, which we did as volunteers for The Hunger Project, our participation was life-altering.