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| Paulo Costa at the UN Preserve Planet Earth stand. |
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| Rita and Paulo at the UN Preserve Planet Earth stand. |
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| "Preserve Planet Earth" Trophy |
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| Comemorative monument celebrating the ecological marathon passage through Santos City. |
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| Paulo V.C. Costa >
Preserve Planet Earth >
ecological marathon |
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To evaluate the real dimension of the Ecological Marathon, it is necessary initially, to realize the unrestricted support that Preserve Planet Earth program - launched by Paulo on 1990-91, his year as Rotary International President - received from all Rotary segments, from several international entities and from authorities and governments from the entire world, through the intense participation of Rotary Clubs worldwide and which has resulted in the large and varied set of efforts in favor of environment.
The Ecological Marathon idea, involving Rotarians and their communities in favor of environment according to Preserve Earth Planet Program policies, arose on June 1992, when Paulo met Rotarian Jorge Rojo, from Mexico - whom, years later, would be known as "Green" Jorge - during ECO 92, which joined in Rio de Janeiro, representatives of more than 120 countries to analyze the global ecological problems.
The idea was that the marathon, symbolized by a trophy, ran all the countries in South, Central and North America in a period of 5 years, visiting 1000 Rotary units, each one of them taking part in the marathon fulfilling an event in favor of the environment: a lecture, an ecological project, the planting of a tree, or with any other effort that would assure Rotary’s commitment with ecology.
The trophy would go from hand to hand, from club to club, being transported by athletes, in cars, trains, ships, and planes, with the participation of youth, students, communities and local Rotary units, including Rotaract, and Interact Clubs.
The Marathon, not only ran the countries in the three Americas, as it had been initially foreseen, but also visited Antarctica, and then, when it went to Alaska, it crossed the Bering Strait and reached Siberia.
Five years later, on May 1997, the Marathon was officially received at the Rotary International headquarters in Evanston. On June 1997, just one month later, it was solemnly accepted at The United Nations headquarters in New York.
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