By Chris Yow
Editor
TRUSSVILLE — The 5th Annual Trussville Trail Run is set for Saturday, May 27, and will benefit the Designs for Hope mission.
The run began five years ago when Jamie Curlee, a teacher and coach at Hewitt-Trussville High School, put together a run to benefit the school’s girls’ golf team. For the last three years, the run has raised money for the lacrosse team Curlee coaches. Now that lacrosse is making strides in fundraising, Curlee said the money could be put to a different charity.
The charity chosen is Designs For Hope, a nonprofit focusing on getting clean water and electricity to foreign countries.
Chris Bond, also a teacher at Hewitt-Trussville, started the organization six years ago, and has grown it into a large mission. Bond will actually step down from teaching the engineering academy at the school this year to take on a full time position with the organization.
“The board of directors made the decision to go from a $75,000 per year budget to a $200,000 per year budget,” Curlee said. “That will allow (Bond) a chance to really push this thing forward.”
Because of that increase in the budget, though, funds must be raised, and Curlee thought this was a good start.
The money helps to fund clean water projects in Africa and bicycle generators that will charge a cell phone.
“Many people don’t know this, but there are more cell phones than people in Africa,” Curlee said.
But charging cell phones isn’t the only way to use the battery. It can also be used for lighting inside the home at night or for radios.
The design uses the energy produced from the rotation of the bicycle tire which then turns a generator. From there, the energy creates an electrical current that is conditioned with an electrical circuit and stored in a battery that is mounted to the bicycle.
This event will allow for fundraising for these and other projects within Designs for Hope.