3-Time Ironman Competitor Races for ONE Big Reason

Las Vegas, NV – Vance Sutton of Las Vegas is poised to compete in his third Ironman competition in Hawaii on October 13, 2007. As if his thrice Ironman status isn’t admirable enough, Sutton is using the competition as a platform to raise awareness for ONE: The Campaign to Make Poverty History.

Sutton, a lifelong athlete, felt called to use his third Ironman competition for a higher purpose while on a run. Sutton explains, “Triathlons are really selfish – all of the solitary training, the runs by yourself. Using Ironman as an opportunity to talk to people about the ONE Campaign and what we are working to do for those around the world seemed like the right thing to do. This allows me to combine something I love doing with something I feel I need to do.”

The ONE Campaign is working to raise awareness of global disease and extreme poverty among America’s leaders. ONE members work to ensure that basic needs such as food, clean water, sanitation and simple medicines like vitamins and immunizations are available to those around the world that need our help most.

Sutton, a parishioner at The Crossing, a Christian Church in southwest Las Vegas, learned about the ONE Campaign at church. In a sermon about doing more to help the “least of these” among us, he was moved to become active in the ONE Campaign. Ben Parker, pastor at The Crossing, participated in the launch of ONE Vote ’08 Nevada.

ONE Vote ’08 Nevada is an unprecedented non-partisan campaign co-chaired by Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-NV) and Congressman Jon Porter (R-NV) to save lives and secure America’s future. The campaign aims to energize presidential candidates, ONE’s 17,000 members in Nevada and ONE’s 2.4 million members nationwide to make the fight against global extreme poverty a key foreign policy issue in the 2008 presidential election.

“ONE is a powerful organization that is trying to get people to lend their voice to end poverty, hunger, and disease,” commented Crossings Pastor Shane Philip. “As a church we are doing everything we can to support the ONE organization and ONE VOTE ’08. We see it as our responsibility to come alongside people who are passionate about ending senseless poverty and hunger; and the ONE movement is leading the way in having our voices heard. We are so glad that one of our members, Vance Sutton, has taken the initiative to lend his voice to this fight in such a powerful way!”

Sutton is asking friends and family to donate one dollar per mile he completes in the race to the ONE Campaign. A send-off party for Sutton will be held on Saturday, October 6th, at Agave from 5:00-7:00pm. Guests will be asked to donate $140 dollars — a dollar per mile of the race’s 140.6 miles — to the ONE Campaign.