Dans Hamptons

Most soon-to-be 13-year-olds take the time on their Spring Break from school to play outside with friends or simply relax, but not Rose Lipton. Rose will walk 112-miles across Long Island, starting in Montauk and ending at Atlantic Beach in western Nassau County, over the course of nine days, in order to raise public awareness of the genocide happening in Darfur.

Rose Lipton is a seventh grader at the North Shore Middle School in Glen Head, L.I. and lives with her family in Sea Cliff. On April 21, Rose will be Bat-Mitzvahed, and as a part of this rite of passage, Rose is attempting to recognize the true meaning of doing a “mitzvah,” which means “good deed.” She will do this by walking across Long Island in honor of her grandmother, Sonia Lipton, who is a Holocaust survivor.

In the past, Rose has helped raise money for other good causes, such as diabetes research, the Leukemia-Lymphoma Society and, just last year, Rose learned of a group in her school that was trying to raise money for the Save Darfur Coalition. If you don‘t know already, there is an alarming situation taking place in Sudan‘s western region of Darfur. A government-backed Arab militia, known as Janjaweed, has been involved in campaigns to demolish and displace communities of African tribal farmers. As a result, villages have been ruined, women and girls have been raped and branded, men and boys murdered, and food and water supplies targeted and destroyed. Well over a million people have been driven from their homes and thousands have died.

Bringing attention to local situations and massive problems, such as Darfur, is not unusual for members of the Lipton family. Last August, Rose‘s cousin, Henry Simon, swam across the Hudson River for his bar mitzvah to raise money for a local charity. Rose‘s grandmother serves as an inspiration for Rose‘s walk and her life. Her grandmother lives at the walk‘s end point in Atlantic Beach and will be waiting there for her, providing Rose with a constant source of motivation.

This past Sunday, Rose started her walk at the Plaza in Montauk. Just before 9 a.m., students from the Ross School in East Hampton and Michael Guglielmo, a music therapist and drummer, formed a drum circle to send positive thoughts, vibrations and messages of peace to Rose and the people of Darfur.

You may be wondering how Rose is going to be able to walk each of those 112 miles. Rose plans to walk about 2-3 miles per hour and take water and food breaks every few hours. She will start walking at 9 a.m. each day and she will carry a light backpack with green, black and white balloons attached to the straps and a few snacks inside.

On Monday, Rose stopped at our office here at Dan‘s Papers with her mother, Meryl Lipton, and was kind enough to talk with me for a few moments, but she made sure not to stop moving her legs too much or else they would begin to cramp. On Tuesday night, Rose and her family were invited by the East Hampton Jewish Center for an evening Sedar and the Jewish Center has also pledged to donate the Tzedakah collection to Rose‘s charity. So far, close to sixty have promised to join Rose on her walk and she has gotten donations as far away as England and New Mexico. Even the associate director of the National Honors Society and Junior Honors Society, donated money to save Darfur and went as far as to e-mail all the middle and high school principals in New York City to create awareness about Rose‘s epic journey.

Rose has been walking since this Sunday, April 1, and there is still time to join her in her last few legs of the walk. Her schoolmates will be joining her when she gets close to the Glen Head area. Rose believes that we should not let genocide happen and hopes that other concerned people will join her on portions of the trek as she passes through communities on Long Island. Whether you are turning 13 or 60, its important to raise awareness and to support not only local, but global efforts to make a difference. Rose‘s decision to educate the community has created a buzz from Montauk to Manhattan and beyond and, as she enters into what is considered Jewish adulthood, her actions have certainly earned the status of “good deeds.”

A complete map of the route can be seen at the following website http://profile.mapmyrun.com/RosesRun. To learn more about this event and other local events like it, or if you would like to donate money to the cause, visit www.savedarfur.org/page/event/detail/w7h.