11,000 Miles Closer to Goal of Aiding Kids

Serge Roetheli has been called crazy more times than he can count. And while he insists he is quite sane, Roetheli admits that what he is doing is, at the very least, different.

The 41-year-old Swiss mountain guide is 11,000 miles into a run that has taken him from the rugged terrain of Argentina’s Tierra del Fuego to Ventura County. By November he hopes to reach Fairbanks, Alaska, in an effort to raise money for needy children around the world.

“I wanted to do something to help children,” Roetheli said. “I didn’t have any money to give, but I had my body.”

Roetheli is running for the Francois Xavier Bagnoud Assn. in Switzerland, an organization that provides relief for impoverished children.

The organization is “selling” miles to sponsors, and the money generated by the trip will go to its relief efforts. Roetheli said he isn’t sure how much money the organization has collected so far, because he has been focused on just completing the grueling trip.

Accompanied by his wife, Nicole, a motorbike, a tent and the barest essentials, Roetheli set out from the Argentine town of Ushuaia, the southernmost settlement in South America, in January 1995 and headed north along the Pan American Highway.

In addition to running what amounts to 20 marathons a month, Roetheli had to face the Atacama Desert in Chile--a thousand-mile-long, barren swath of salt and sand that is listed as the driest region on Earth.

He has had to dodge traffic along narrow roads, slink up the face of towering Andean peaks and keep an eye out for snakes while chopping a path through the Panamanian jungle.

“I met people, some 60, even 70, who had never seen rain or a river,” Roetheli said of the Atacama.

Roetheli plans on completing his 33-month journey by November. But he is worried that the money he raised from selling his home and assets will not be enough to complete the last 5,000 miles. He said he has been trying to line up corporate sponsors but has come up empty-handed.

“I’m not worried about it right now because I know I will finish,” he said happily. “The thought of quitting has never entered my mind.”

For updates on Roetheli’s adventure, people can call one of his local supporters, David Palmquist, at 646-4160, or check out the Francois Xavier Bagnoud Assn. site on the World Wide Web at https://www.fxb.com

Roetheli said he is not sure what he will do when he returns to Switzerland. He and his wife intend to write a book on their adventure, and Roetheli isn’t ruling out another transcontinental run.

“For me, there is no finish line,” he said.