LINCOLN CITY – Oregon Coast Community College was the 11th of 17 community colleges of Tim Cook’s running route Thursday on his 50-day trek to raise awareness and money for students’ basic needs.
The president of Clackamas Community College is running 25-30 miles a day to all of Oregon’s community colleges.
In Lincoln City, he was met by OCCC President Marshall Roache and a crowd of college supporters before heading north to Tillamook Community College.
Cook told the Salem Reporter on Tuesday that the run started because of his drive to support students struggling to make ends meet, including those he’d seen living in their cars, unable to pay bills or who didn’t have enough to eat.
“There’s so many of those stories,” Cook said. “They’re one flat tire, one missed payment from being houseless or something else, and it’s not right.”
An avid marathoner, Cook, 57, started June 16 at Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario and worked his way across eastern and central Oregon, south to Klamath Falls, and then up the Willamette Valley.
Cook is followed by a team in a van driven by his wife. They periodically meet so he can get food, water and take a break if needed.
On Tuesday he was in Salem to stop at Chemeketa Community College before heading west to Lincoln City on Wednesday, where he spent his anniversary night in a donated motel room.
On Thursday he headed north to Tillamook – with Roache joining him on the first leg of the run — and then on to Astoria. Cook plans to finish in Hood River with a jump in the Columbia River.
The campaign, Running for Oregon Community College Students aims to raise awareness about the challenges faced by students and advocate for increased state funding to support their basic needs. Cook’s effort has raised about $85,000 so far.
“Some have questioned why I’m doing this run and why I would subject myself to this, but our students deserve to be able to afford college and be able to pay for rent, child care, groceries and transportation,” Cook said. “If this run helps raise awareness and funding for basic needs, it will be worth every blister.”
Cook told the Salem Reporter that his favorite part of the journey is the people he meets along the way.
“I’ve been in Eastern Oregon, stopped on the side of the road by people driving by, saying, ‘What are you doing?’ And I get to talk about community colleges,” he said. “I’ve met the most amazing people.”
