Christians Race to Overtake Poverty on Memorial Day

May 28, 2007 02:21 PM EDT

Christians devoted to overcoming child poverty are organizing themselves under the banner of Team Compassion on Monday to run one of the largest road races in the world.

More than 100 people will run the annual BolderBOULDER Memorial Day 10K (6.2 mile) road race in Boulder, Colo. on behalf of Compassion International. The team is composed of Compassion staff, advocates, family members and sponsors who aim to raise awareness of poor children around the world through their efforts.

Several Compassion executives, including president, Dr. Wess Stafford, and senior vice president, David Dahlin, will also participate in the race, which expects to draw up to 50,000 participants this year.

“At Compassion, we run because we can,” said David Dahlin, senior vice president of Compassion, in a statement. “We run for children who don’t have the ability to outrun the poverty that is overtaking their lives.

Dahlin, who is running for the third year, added, “We will encourage everyone at the race that ‘You can make a difference!’ You can fight this destroyer of children’s lives that we call poverty and give children the chance to run a good race with their lives.”

The 29th BolderBOULDER will start at the First National Bank of Colorado (30th and Iris) and end at Folsom Stadium at the University of Colorado in Boulder where Compassion will have an information booth at the RaceDayEXPO near the stadium. Members of Team Compassion will wear T-shirts with a child advocacy message.

Compassion is a child sponsorship ministry headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo., which works with more than 800,000 children in 24 developing countries. Since 1952, Compassion has helped more than 1.6 million children. It is one of the world’ largest Christian child-development organizations, working with more than 65 denominations and more than 4,000 indigenous church partners in Africa, Asia, Central and South America and the Caribbean.