Run with us
Posted on Monday, August 15, 2016 by
As we are running into this coming school year, it reminds me of our first annual Parent Life 5K this past spring. It was a great event! Over 100 runners participated, thousands of dollars were raised, and twenty volunteers gave to make the event a success. For me, the most exciting part of the event was the volunteers, particularly three girls who helped with registration, served water to runners, and stayed late to clean it all up.
These girls have had rough lives. They grew up together, and the stories they tell about their childhood years make you want to cry. Their families are filled with drug addicts and alcoholics. They are some of the first in their families to make healthy choices and not walk down those destructive roads.
These girls have attended Parent Life regularly. Parent Life has become for them their "great cloud of witnesses." Week after week, we encourage these girlsto keep running, to finish their race, to stay strong. And these three girls are now giving back. They give their time sacrifically just to be near our Parent Life team and to grow our program. It is in those times that it's as if they're saying right back to us: "Keep running!" "Finish the race!" "Stay strong!" It gives us what we need to run into another day and another school year. Here we go!