Printed in the Kalamazoo Gazette on 12/4/2010
By: Gabrielle Russon
KALAMAZOO — George Morse was tired of the gloomy economic news, how it seemed everyone was moving out of Michigan, how businesses just couldn’t survive here.
The negative stereotype and the bad publicity “bothered me,” Morse said. “I just got fed up with that.”
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So Morse decided to do something. He laced up his running shoes.
Morse is trying to run 1,000 miles across the state — five miles at a time — and has started a blog featuring small business owners he meets along the way.
That’s how Morse, a 45-year-old resident of northern Michigan, found himself in Kalamazoo for the first time on Friday.
“It’s an example of what one person can do,” said Morse who owns five Subway franchises. “It’s about taking initiative … We all face negative circumstances, but we don’t have to take a negative attitude.”
Dressed in a red fleece jacket and Adidas track pants, he ran around the Kalamazoo Mall and Michigan Avenue on Friday, zig-zagging around to see the Christmas lights in Bronson Park.
The entrepreneur stopped to get red wax lips from a local old-time candy shop and visited a few small businesses on the mall, which will appear later on his blog.
So far, Morse has run in 87 cities, from Paw Paw to Detroit to Traverse City to Flint to Grand Rapids. He estimated that by the end of the day, he would have logged about 435 miles.
“This is really an amazing place,” said Morse, who started his trek in July. “We need to fall in love with our state again.”
Morse hopes to finish his 1,000 miles on April 28 in Lansing.
On Friday afternoon, a woman walked by wearing a heavy winter coat with a fur hood, just before Morse finished his run on a brisk 30-degree day.
Sometimes in the cold, “I’m not really feeling it,” Morse said, laughing. “Those moment pass. They’re only temporary. I take those first few steps and everything is fine.”
Morse, who used to be a smoker, said he has been a runner for about five years and has participated in triathlons. To read more about his travels and the small businesses he visits, go to www.thousandmilesformichigan.com.
