Relay Missouri

300 MILE CHARITY RUN TO HELP HOMELESS CHILDREN
Three college freshmen are organizing a three-day run from Kansas City to St. Louis to raise awareness of homeless children.

Three local college freshmen have organized a 300-mile run, Relay Missouri, from Kansas City to St. Louis. The event will take place June 17-19, 2010, with the goal to raise money and awareness of the desperate need to help homeless children in America. The three teenagers have been taught to, and truly want to, give back to the communities they grew up in, and are hosting this event to do just that.

Bryant Blair, Michael Chan, and Chrissy Woodrome, are freshman at three different colleges in Utah, Illinois, and Ohio respectively. Blair and Chan ran Cross Country at Parkway West High School, and were taught by their coach to be responsible, to change the world for better, and to care about everyone.

“I try to help kids prepare to become the very best they can be at whatever they choose to be, and by doing that they will contribute to society and help other people in the process.” Parkway West Cross Country Coach Dale Shepherd said.

Immediately after graduation, the group of planners was determined to give back in some way. When they heard that there were over 1.3 million children suffering on America’s streets every day, and that over 13 of them die every day, they knew they had to help out.

“There isn’t anyone to care for them or to love these kids,” Woodrome said of the homeless children.

The twenty runners who will make the trip and run across the state share the same passion about helping these kids and giving to the cause. Each person will run an assigned number of miles a day and then hand the baton off and let someone else run their leg of the relay. Eventually, the team will run 300 miles over the three days of the event.

“We may be young, but we’re not too young to start giving back” Chan said.

Relay Missouri, the 300 mile relay across Missouri from Kansas City to St. Louis, is raising money for “StandUp For Kids”, a charity dedicated to helping Americas homeless children. “StandUp For Kids” a 501(c)(3) organization that is nationwide, going out every day, helping these kids in need. They currently have a branch and Kansas City, and are hoping to eventually open a branch in St. Louis. A goal of Relay Missouri is to make that possible.

“We’re just really grateful that we have this opportunity to help these homeless kids out, and we know that God is behind us and giving us this chance to give back,” Blair said.