Wings of America marking 30 years with fundraiser
Event features Olympic gold medalist Billy Mills, others in panel talk
Wings of America, a celebrated organization promoting American Indian runners and youth leaders, will celebrate 30 years since its founding with its Long Run Fundraiser on Thursday with special guests who include famed runner Billy Mills, author N. Scott Momaday and former Wings board member Roxanne Swentzell.
Wings, which conducts programs mostly in the Southwest, holds summer running and fitness camps, after-school programs, coaching clinics, leadership development trainings and community running events in hopes of keeping Native American youth engaged on a yearround basis.
Wings “is inspired by the cultural, spiritual and competitive legacy of Native runners,” said Executive Director Dustin Martin, a member of the Navajo Nation.
The Santa Fe-based organization, founded in 1988, “empowers Native youth and their families,” Martin said in an interview.
“My first experience to Wings was as a small kid in Gallup,” Martin said.
He began running in sixth grade. As a runner at Gallup High School, Martin competed on the cross-country and track teams.
Several older runners were Martin’s idols, including Felicia Guliford, who at ran at Gallup High and later the University of Tennessee. Guliford went on to become a doctor, he said.
Martin, 28, credits Wings for helping him gain acceptance to Columbia University, where he competed for four years.
“I am most touched … when I talk to a parent of one of our participants and hear how they participated in Wings,” he said.
Mills, 80, is an emeritus board
member of Wings of America and a world-renowned motivational speaker. He was the only American ever to win a gold medal in the 10,000-meter event at the Summer Olympics.
“As a young boy, I was taught
that when passion and skills are matched, magic becomes possible,” he said in a statement. “In this respect, Wings performs magic. The same magic I had to choreograph on my own on the road to Tokyo in 1964.”