Health through exercise – this is the cause of the young enlightener. With his enthusiasm he has succeeded in involving thousands from all over Bulgaria in his initiative. What do we know about him?

37-year old Kalin from Veliko Tarnovo gave up his work at one of the top US universities - Carnegie Mellon University - where he was involved in developing new genetic biosensor technologies, and in 2014 returned to Bulgaria to follow his dream. And his dream is to help people stay healthy. That was how the TarnovoRuns initiative came into being, aiming to motivate people to lead a healthy life. Together with like-minded friends, Kalin started organizing free open-air training sessions, yoga, mountain hikes, bicycle adventures, seminars, awareness campaigns, camps etc. And his enthusiasm was infectious. “Our group grew and grew. When we go up into the mountain, there are 200-300 of us. Last year we broke the record – 360 of us went climbing together,” Kalin says.

He travelled around Bulgaria, meeting young people, motivating them to exercise. “But the lesson is that contrary to the saying that “one swallow does not a summer make” it turns out that it does! People are disillusioned, especially young people. They say to themselves that it is better to run away because nothing is going to happen. But then they see someone like me, someone with a dream, someone who has involved so many people in the past 4-5 years. They see other leaders emerge in their town, leaders who organize events and who make them believe that something really is going to happen. That is the most important lesson of all – the lesson of bringing people together. Because it is our joint efforts to build a positive environment that have helped all of these sporting and health events happen. And the belief that health comes through the environment itself,” says Kalin.

However his professional career is connected with genetic engineering. So, what was it that prompted the young man to stray from the beaten career path and dedicate himself to one cause?

“It has always been my dream to make human health my cause. Carried away by the 21^st century idea of the latest invention curing the world of everything, I suddenly realized that socialization, prevention, building a health community are rooted much deeper in human health than any genetic therapy what will cost 550,000 USD for each person and will not be available to anyone. I realized that health is more than jogging in the park. Actually, that was how we started out but we grew to reach a much broader social context. We clean up the city and its environs to build a clean environment. Because clean is healthy, and health is socialization. I now want to organize painting bridges, all kinds of other things…The best way to take people to the finish line is when that is what they themselves want. And they want it when the environment shows them the way,” Kalin Vasilev says in conclusion.

His dream is to build a huge health centre that will be free of charge. Something along the lines of “health home” but with a focus on physical training and education that will be made available to all.