Matt Hill & Stephanie Tait

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Run For One Planet

Matt, a B.C. native, started his acting career at the age of 13 and has worked with the likes of Jackie Chan, Steven Spielberg, Johnny Depp, and fellow B.C.-ers Barry Pepper and Jason Priestley. He has also finished seven Ironman triathlons.

Stephanie is a YWCA Young Woman of Distinction of the Year nominee and a recognized International Emerging Leader of the Year for 2006. An international speaker and writer, her coaching business helps young entrepreneurs and business owners.

Together, Matt and Stephanie started Run for One Planet. Over the course of a year, they ran 11,000 miles across Canada, down into and across the United States, and back up the west coast to Vancouver. That's the equivalent of running a marathon every day for an entire year. Run for One Planet was a carbon neutral initiative designed to inspire environmental action.

Run For One Planet proves a hit

When Stephanie Tait signed on to be Matt Hill's business manager, she probably didn't envision that three years down the road she would be running over 40 kilometres a day, and sharing an RV with over 250 composting worms.

But that's exactly what happened. It was a quick evolution that saw Steph and Matt – now members of Team Power Smart – first becoming partners in life, and not long after, becoming partners in the charity, Run for One Planet.

Matt, a born-and-bred Vancouverite, loves to run. While most avid runners will push themselves to hit 10 or 20 kilometres, Matt decided to go for a slightly longer run, 17,700 kilometres, to be exact.

Steph was an avid, non-competitive runner for most of her life, and could run a cool 10 km with relative ease. However, 11,000 miles (17,700 km) in 365 days was an incredible number of steps and a seriously daunting prospect that Steph wasn't so sure that she could handle.

The run-up to Run For One Planet

The distance sounds impossible. But when Matt and Stephanie formed the charity Run for One Planet, "impossible" was not a word they chose to believe in. They felt an urgency for change, and our power to initiate it.

Their plan was to help individuals take the first important steps down the road of change. More than a convenient metaphor, running around the continent for change meant that Steph and Matt would quite literally have the chance to "inspire environmental change, step by step."

The only catch, of course, is that there would be an awful lot of steps to take. Steph was an avid, non-competitive runner for most of her life, and could run a cool 10 km with relative ease. However, 11,000 miles (17,700 km) in 365 days was an incredible number of steps and a seriously daunting prospect that Steph wasn't so sure that she could handle.

Yet, after only a year and a half of fundraising, organizing, and serious training, Steph was ready to set out with Matt on a mission that would take them across Canada to Newfoundland, down the East Coast to Florida, across the continent to California, and finally, up the West Coast back home into Vancouver.

The journey was not without its share of adversity, but in the end, after a year on the road, Steph and Matt ran their final miles back into Vancouver in May and completed their mission.

The incredible distance that Steph and Matt ran is only eclipsed by the incredible change that their run inspired. Hundreds of thousands of people in communities right across both countries began to take "the small steps that add up". The funds that Steph and Matt raised and the feat that they performed were phenomenal. But the greatest results came from something that even Steph and Matt did not quite anticipate.

Their interactions with over 26,000 children, across the continent sparked such contagious excitement and hope in the kids that it spread like an epidemic that reached teachers and parents, eventually engulfing entire communities.

The children's ability to embrace change as something normal has become a real inspiration to Steph. Since returning home from her journey, this is something she takes with her everyday as she continues her work with Run for One Planet, and as an active member of Team Power Smart.

An Inconvenient Truth, and an idea

The seed for this impossible journey was planted when Matt and his partner Steph watched the film An Inconvenient Truth. An important Canadian actor for 27 years with a lot of Hollywood experience, Matt was no stranger to film's ability to evoke emotion. However, this wasn't just a film tugging on his heartstrings. The plea of our planet was something that resonated deep within Matt.

Immediately, he and Steph began making small but meaningful changes in their own lives. The fever spread quickly, and soon the satisfaction and fulfillment of their own changes could not be contained. They wanted to go out and help others, and so, the idea that was to become Run for One Planet was conceived.

Matt, who is a seven-time Ironman finisher, took the phrase "one step at a time" quite literally. Run for One Planet created a list of 10 action steps, or simple changes, that people could choose from and apply in their lives. In order to help people take these steps, Matt and Steph would run across Canada and around the perimeter of the United States inspiring change, step by step.

Now that the run itself is over, Matt is busy nurturing the legacy that Run for One Planet created. He's also a proud member of Team Power Smart, Matt has joined BC Hydro's quest to bring about tangible change for today, and sustainable solutions for the future.