‘Earth Run’ Torch to Hit County Friday in Last Leg of UNICEF Drive

Runners will carry a torch representing “the spirit of global cooperation” through San Diego County Friday as UNICEF’s “First Earth Run” begins its final leg. The torch, which has been carried around the world during the last 80 days, will pass through ceremonies in Logan Heights, La Jolla and Cardiff as the procession makes its way northward.

The flame was ignited Sept. 16 at the United Nations Plaza in New York by American Indians using flint. Since then, the Earth Run entourage has traversed five continents, crossing paths with a superpower summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, and a papal address in Lyon, France.

The run will return to New York next Thursday, coinciding with the 40th anniversary of UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund. The purpose of the run, which has cost UNICEF more than $1 million to stage, is to draw worldwide attention to the organization’s efforts to improve nutrition and health care for children in developing countries, said Martin Bentz, the run’s logistical director.

“The main purpose is to heighten awareness,” Bentz said. “The fund raising is, I wouldn’t say secondary, but consequential to it. In the Third World, it’s an expression of thanks for the programs UNICEF is operating in those countries. In the First World, the success of this program has gotten governments to increase their contributions for UNICEF.”

On Friday, the torch-bearers will make their official return to North America, as the four runners who have made the entire trek--accompanied by local participants--make their way from Rosarito Beach, Mexico, to Camp Pendleton. The Earth Run entourage actually flew into Los Angeles from New Zealand on Wednesday night and will appear tonight at a reception at the Hotel Inter-Continental.

After ceremonies at the Cultural Center in Tijuana, the runners will enter the United States about 2 p.m. Friday. The torch will reach Chicano Park in Logan Heights by 4 p.m., where its flame will be joined with that of a torch carried by children from local elementary schools.

The children also will read statements of peace they have written and then recite in unison a “Declaration of Interdependence,” by poet Leslie Goldman. The ceremonies will include American Indian dancing by members of the Pacific Coast Indian Center.

At 4:25 p.m., the runners will depart for Mission Bay Park, where a 10-kilometer “fun run” will be held in conjunction with the torch’s arrival.

Another reception for the torch will be held at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art’s Sherwood Auditorium, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Friday. The show will feature a concert band, a choir and a “mixed media international visual presentation,” and will culminate with the arrival of the torch runners about 7 p.m.

The runners will participate in their last ceremony in San Diego County at 9:30 p.m. at Cardiff Town Center, where Olympian Joan Hanson and triathlete Scott Tinley will carry the torch. UNICEF officials are attempting to arrange a relay of Marines to carry the torch through Camp Pendleton later Friday night.

After running from New York to Ottawa, the Earth Run entourage flew to Europe, from which it proceeded through the Middle East into Africa and then to Asia. The “core” group of eight runners split in China, four going to Australia and the other four traveling to South America.

Highlights of the run included a blessing by John Paul II in Lyon, a peace rally in Leningrad attended by 100,000, and a similar assembly in Shanghai that drew almost a million people, Bentz said.

The program for which UNICEF is hoping to garner the most attention is its newly instituted GOBI Project, Bentz said. The project’s name is an acronym for the organization’s efforts in the areas of growth, oral rehydration, breast-feeding and immunization, he said.

The program seeks to counsel the parents of children who are underweight and distribute salt supplements to prevent the diarrhea that often accompanies malnutrition, Bentz said. It also discourages the use of bottled formulas--which are more apt to be contaminated than breast milk--and promotes immunization of children against diseases such as typhoid, dyptheria and measles.

Bentz acknowledged that, with the recent spate of large-scale philanthropic events such as Live-Aid, Hands Across America and the Amnesty International concert tour, such efforts may have reached a saturation point. However, he said the Earth Run--which he said was conceived after the Bicentennial Relays in 1976--has not had trouble attracting interest in the countries it has visited.

“I think, done creatively, people still like to feel they’re part of a global community,” he said. “People like to feel that they’re aware of what’s going on in Bangladesh. That flame has touched 85 cities on five continents with 5 million people seeing or otherwise interacting with the flame. They feel that it’s a harbinger of greater cooperation.”