Hilary Swank, Oscar Winning Actress

Swank's event, called Blue Planet Run, kicked off yesterday (Friday) in an effort to raise awareness of the 1.1 billion people in the world who lack access to clean water. BPR includes 20 runners who will cover 15,200 miles in the next 95 days, each covering 10 miles at a time. �Making safe drinking water available is everyone's problem, and it's a problem it will take everyone to solve -� she said. "It's easy for me to show up today and talk about this. The real heroes are the 20 people who are actually running ... and putting their lives on hold for the 95 days"� she told press. "They will be informing ordinary individuals that we can do something extraordinary, like save a person's life for $30, by bringing safe drinking water to them," said Jin Zindell, BPRFs chairman and founder. The runners will cross 16 countries, starting in the U.S. and flying to Ireland, then ferrying to England and France. From France, they will cross Europe and Asia on land, eventually flying from Beijing to Japan before heading back to the United States.