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Weather Turns Relay for Clean Air Into Odyssey of Determination
Michael Youngwood brings the flag to Newfound Gap to complete the Relay for Clean Air August 22, 2004 On Friday, at noon, at City/County Plaza in Asheville the intense heat of the August sun didn’t discourage about thirty walkers, including 11th congressional district candidate Patsy Keever and several of her staff members, who began the first leg, of the 100 mile, 24 hour Relay for Clean Air, to McCormick Field. Support workers Randy Gogolin, Michael Morgan, Michael Bass, Zev Friedman, Dana Edge, Dr.Emily Diznoff, Curtis Wood, Ken and Melanie West, Rebecca Gibson and others would take shifts throughout the night to shuttle Relayers, scout out road conditions and keep things moving. They had no idea what this night had in store for them. Will Harlan, Jack Saye, Michael Morgan, Janet Grant, Tom Alba, Melanie West, Mark Lundblad and many other walkers, runners and bike riders brought the Relay flag through Biltmore Forest and onto the Blue Ridge Parkway, passed the French Broad Overlook, all the way to Elk Pasture Gap near Mount Pisgah, by about 8 PM. Then a dense fog rolled in and darkness began to descend. The ten people walking from Pisgah Inn to Pink Beds wore blinking red clip-on lights and headlamps to pierce through the thick haze that limited their visibility to less than ten feet into oncoming traffic, through a dark tunnel, on the narrow winding road. It began to mist and then to rain. Umbrellas were opened. Weather conditions worsened as the march progressed. At nearly 11:30 PM, lightening, thunder, and a powerful driving rain tested and tormented Jay and Sheri Farrington, Carrie Maher and Scott O’Shields who were forcing their bicycles into 20-30 mph winds as they climbed, refusing to break stride, 7.6 miles to Richland-Balsam Overlook, the highest point on the Parkway. One leg at a time, throughout the entire night and into Saturday morning one group of people after another appeared, on schedule, to relentlessly march on. At midnight Jeannette Evans arrived with a group of 10 friends and their bicycles to brave the weather conditions for nine miles between Fetterbush Overlook and BearTrail Ridge. Through the changing weather, on the slippery, dangerous road with poor visibility, with lack of sleep by many of the support workers, but with an immense sense of comradery and purpose, the Relay for Clean Air reached the end of the Blue Ridge Parkway, at Ravens Fork by 7:30 in the morning. Then Michael Youngwood took the flag on his bicycle to begin his lone ascent on Hwy.441, 17 steep, hard miles up to Newfound Gap in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, near the Tennessee border. Once again the hard, driving rains came. The traffic was heavy. The wind conspired with the wet road to slow the determined bicyclist. But, Michael’s willpower prevailed as he triumphantly reached the parking area at Newfound Gap at about 11AM. Continually circling the parking lot in the rain, he waved the Clean Air flag above his head to the cheers of the small crowd of 15-20 people with umbrellas that had gathered for the press conference planned for the end of the event. A crew of volunteers was working in the rain to set up a canopy and a sound system for the people who would be speaking. Then the rain slowed and stopped. The clouds parted. Umbrellas began to fold. More people began emerging from their cars. The crowd grew to about fifty. Newspaper reporters appeared. The resilience and determination of the marchers had been tested. The test had been passed. Now, the message could be delivered. “The news we have made in the last 24 hours and the involvement we have witnessed in the weeks and months prior to this event, is going to reverberate across this country and help to generate a new wave, a new outcry and we are going to win this campaign for clean air”, proclaimed Avram Friedman of the Canary Coalition. Complete statements made at the beginning and end of the event. |
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