Molly Campanella arrived in Britain not knowing many people. However, soon she was being cheered by tens of thousands of people – and making lots of money at the same time. Want to know more? Then read on... Having lived in two distinctly different cities in the two years since my graduation from Boston College . a Jesuit University in the States, I would recommend to anyone interested in moving around before settling down, that the best way to find good friends and good times in a new city is to 1) Find some Jesuits 2) Run a marathon. Never in my wildest dreams, did I think that I could do both...at the same time. Having completed a year in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps (JVC) in Los Angeles , and run the Los Angeles Marathon, I moved to London with my running shoes and a job in Wimbled on . After a few weeks in the ‘Edgehill Corridor' in which, to borrow a phrase from my fellow Americans in the South, ‘you couldn't swing a dead cat' without hitting some kind of Catholic, I started to realise that I was in the right place. Although. as chaplain at the Ursuline High School , other members of staff began to find it highly suspect that our weekly themes were blatant Jesuit rip-offs. My attempts at big cheerful signs reading ‘For the Greater Glory of Go d' and ‘Women for Others' were giving me away, so I realised that I needed to find some kind of outlet -a group of like-minded people who both knew that ‘The Exercises' wasn't the name of a Geri Halliwell's latest yoga video and were as crazy as me. My search for this seemingly idiosyncratic subpopulation was thankfully short-lived , for someone told me about the famous Alan Fernandes , king of the Jesuit Missions Marathon Team. Bingo, So I gave this famed Fernandes a call and got the ‘skinny' on the marathon situation,.. fundraising for some of the incred ible projects undertaken by Jesuits all over the world, training in Richmond Park , and a free t-shirt: sounded perfect. January and the time for our long group runs around Richmond Park came sooner that I had expected , and on the first training session I attended , I met the other members of the team. Upon hearing that two of my fellow runners were fathers of students at the Ursuline High School , I foolishly thought to myself that I would have no problem keeping up with this group. My head was filled with falsely comforting thoughts of myself finishing our 10 miles far ahead of the group I met in the parking lot. What I did not expect, but was endlessly grateful for, was the way that Chris McGrath and Gerry Hawthorne - said fathers of the pupils at the Ursuline - dramatically slowed their pace and would frequently circle back to check on me when I would fall behind. I returned home duly humbled by my experience, but reminded of the reason why I like marathons so much. As evil and gruelling as the actual race is, just about anyone has the opportunity to successfully complete a marathon. On both of my marathon running endeavours, other runners who were older, younger, bigger, and smaller have left me in the dust. As much as talent and strength are what makes Paula Ratcliffe an outstanding marathoner for most of us it is about commitment more than anything else. As the time before 13th April diminished , I continued my training and began to put the word around about my fundraising efforts. I must say that I met with a great amount of generosity and moral support from other staff members at the Ursuline High School. My sponsor sheet filled rapidly, and students helped by even asking their families and friends to make pled ges. My concern that I didn't have family and friends to rely on soon disappeared as students approached me after assemblies with a £1 coin for the Marathon. In addition to sponsorships, we had a fabulous Easter egg decorating contest amongst the Year 7 students, plus several cake sales. I discovered the Just.com website. which allowed my family in America to donate money online, and I even received a letter from my fabulous 93 year old great Auntie with American dollars in it for Jesuit Missions. In spite of the comments of a friend who claimed that people would be more willing to give if I had been running for a cause like cancer,' I found that my fundraising efforts made for an excellent opportunity to explain to the students in my school about their contemporaries in Zambia who didn't have any water The excitement of the Marathon became a tremendous opportunity to talk to the kids about economic development and justice. The money that they raised wasn't just charity money: it was an investment ined ucation and empowerment. The experience of the Marathon only furthered the idea of connected ness with those around, as thousands of strangers turned up to support the thousands who undertook the 26.2 mile challenge. London was transformed in a way I have never seen before. Strangers, who might normally pass you by. shared great moments as they cheered each other on. It was magic! There is nothing like having people call out your name, with some encouraging words, just because they want you to succeed . At one point, after I had just passed two 6 th -formers from the Ursuline who had come to cheer me on at the 22 mile point, I was beginning to run out of steam. It was the time when the Lucozade power drink was doing nothing for my tired legs. I was coming to what marathoners fondly refer to as, ‘the wall' where, What-ever mental or physical reserves you have are the only things that are going to get you through. As I desperately drank my last drop of Lucozade, I convinced myself that it would be OK to walk - just for a second or two. Although part of me knew that I was kidding myself that it would make it easier to start up again once the momentum had been broken. I was desperate for something to get me through those last four miles. Having made my way over to the right side of the road to allow for other runners to pass me, I heard my name from a spectator on my right. An elderly man looked directly at me and, with extraordinary care and sincerity, urged - in his fantastic Cockney accent - ‘C'mon, Molly, you only have a bit left, keep going.' Wow! After almost four hours of hearing the cheers of strangers and friends, his words cut through all the noise of the race, and all the noise in my head. I finished 20 minutes faster than last year. but with an immense sense of gratitude. more so for the team members, committed Jesuit Missions workers, and strangers who had made this newly red iscovered idea of community all the more real. All my gripes about anonymous city living disappeared as I crossed the line and cried as more complete strangers gave me my med al. This for me was the feeling of heaven on earth. Call me American, call me over-enthusiastic, and do I really mean that ‘running a marathon is heaven on earth?' It's true! For those who may have grown weary of the rush and the strangeness of a life dominated by images of exclusion and disunity, whether on Big Brother; or footage of Afghan refugees. I have seen how involvement and participation in a movement, a charity, or a cause is a way of struggling against alienation. In a way, Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, answered this in her autobiography, ‘The Long Loneliness'. ‘We cannot love Go d unless we love each other.. We have all known the long loneliness and we have learned that the only solution is love and that love comes with community.' |
Jesuit Missions UK
