We need love!

We are officially just TWO WEEKS away from our inaugural Girls Run Red 5K and we need your help! We would love to see you out there walking, jogging, or running to win a trophy…regardless, all who finish will earn a beautiful handmade “medal,” kindly put together by my friend Omair’s high school students that he teaches at a local mosque, pictured here in the act. Omair said they had a wonderful time making these medals, and in light of the recent horrific mosque shooting in New Zealand, it provided some joy in an otherwise frightening, confusing, and extraordinarily sad time for these lovely teens.

I find it fitting that moments like these can help – I had no idea when we started this whole thing (Msomi AND Girls Run Red) the lessons I – and hopefully my team – would learn. Perhaps learn is not the right word when it comes to matters of the heart, however; affirm may be much better. I’ve personally never understand why the color of my skin, whom I choose to love, or what I choose to worship should be cause for concern to anyone else. If I am living my life joyfully, with love and compassion, and doing my best to be a decent human being, in the end isn’t that all that really matters? No, I’m not always successful. But I sure do learn from my mistakes, I hope. And when it comes to people, the more you travel and the more open you are, the more you realize that “we are more alike, my friends, than unalike” (the great Maya Angelou’s words).

So please, come celebrate with us on April 7th – for a number of reasons. Because you are able to walk when others aren’t; because you live in a country where you have the right to speak your thoughts without fear of governmental retribution; because it’s April in Texas and it’s likely to be raining or sunny – and warm regardless; because in the end, we’ve worked hard to bring you a race to help some who don’t have the means to help themselves and along the way we’ve made new friends and found new joys. Come share the love with us, get some exercise, and remember that it’s all going to a two amazing causes!

https://www.roadid.com/a/event-calendar/events/3421-girls-run-red