Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2007. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Bay Area Reporter - December 20, 2007
Kris Larson
The run was Sacco's brainchild. A straight white biology student originally from Vermont, Sacco, 26, was moved by the decimation AIDS has wreaked on people from all walks of life. A longtime runner, Sacco, 26, came up with the idea for the marathon while talking to the Black AIDS Institute's CEO Phill Wilson, a longtime activist.
"[Phill] mentioned something to me about an opportunity to send a message to the public and the community that regardless of race, ethnicity or geography, this is everyone's problem and we all need to work together," Sacco said. "I decided I was going to work with them and the run was born."
The Run in a Million event, which started on World AIDS Day in San Francisco and ended December 14 in Los Angeles, is part of the "Test 1 Million" campaign sponsored by the Black AIDS Institute in partnership with the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The goal is to encourage one million African Americans to be tested by June 27, 2009, National HIV Testing Day.
Wilson has written about his initial concern when approached by Sacco to discuss the possibility of a charity run. In an article for http://www.Blackvoices.com, Wilson wrote that the Black AIDS Institute's motto is "Our people, Our problem, Our solution!" He added, "Our mission is to get black people involved in fighting HIV/AIDS. On the other hand, white people should not be given a pass just because black people bear the brunt of the AIDS epidemic today."
Ultimately, Wilson wrote, "This quirky white kid from Underhill, Vermont reminded me that we are all a part of a family - the human family. And our human family has AIDS. And, we need everyone in the family, regardless of color, to do their part."
Sacco recently lost a friend to AIDS. He also currently works at Gold Coast, a gay bar in Los Angeles, where he received strong support from his customers. Sacco said that many of the Gold Coast crowd "have seen many of the people they know affected by or killed by this disease. I had people come up to me in tears thanking me for what I was doing."
"When Mike told me about his idea, I thought, 'this is awesome,'" said Boudreaux, 30, who is in the Air Force.
Other runners joined the men on various legs of the event. Sacco and Boudreaux ran anywhere from 26.2 miles, the regulation marathon, to up to 50 miles per day. They kept a daily blog about the trip (http://www.myspace.com/runinamillion).
Sacco and Boudreaux spent two weeks completing the 510-mile run, and he said they received positive feedback from people along the route. However, some have questioned the partnership between a straight white man and the Black AIDS Institute.
"As Phil says all the time, in America AIDS is a black disease running rampant through black communities," Sacco said, explaining why he chose to partner with a specifically black charity. "Back when it was seen as a gay white disease it was left to gay white men to deal with and to do so with the black community now would be just as foolish."
This isn't Sacco's first philanthropic run, though he admitted he tries to avoid the larger marathons because he doesn't like running with big groups. In high school he and his friends did "trash runs."
"We'd take trash bags and pick up whatever we found as a way of beautifying our community and getting rid of litter," Sacco said. "So thinking back, I missed doing that kind of thing. I saw [the run] as an opportunity to get back to that ideal."
Sacco was uncertain how much money his marathon raised, as many donations were made through the Web site without being specifically associated with his run.
Sacco said that he may travel to South Africa next year in association with Black AIDS Institute to run the Comrades Marathon.
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