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Portland Run for Congo

Portland, OR 3 or 9 Mile Run (or Walk)

Saturday, June 19, 2010


Two hundred and twenty-four undaunted walkers and runners braved a downpour to celebrate our solidarity with Congolese women and children with a 3 or 9 mile trail run or walk Portland's Forest Park at our Fifth Annual Run for Congo Women on Saturday, September, 19th. 

Georgann Pierce, captain of the Soleful Strutters walking group, kicked the day off by leading us in a vigorous warm-up. Each arrival at the Finish Line was greeted by bell ringers, whoops & whistles from the crowd, and a Run for Congo Women button.

Almost everyone mingled, writing notes of encouragement and hope to our Congolese sisters, visiting the info table for further education, and writing letters to our Oregon Legislators urging them to co-sponsor S.1067 and HR 2478 (Lord's Resistance Army Disarmament & N. Uganda Recovery Act of 2009) if they have not already done so, to co-sponsor S891 (Congo Conflict Minerals Act of 2009), or introduce a companion bill in the House of Representatives. 

One runner, Molly Hiro, raised $3,000! Two women who traveled up from Los Angeles to join us raised $1,000 between them.  A San Francisco couple came to run the 9 mile with their baby. Eleven toddlers were also on the course...with two-year-old Avi Cox taking the lead in running before the start.  The toddlers brought stickers and photos of themselves to attach to finger paintings for Congolese children, and received helium balloons.  Nine-year-old Safina and her six-year-old sister Mimi walked thirteen miles with their Mom and were still happy when they came in!

Special kudos to Laurie Rumker and Oregon Episcopal School's (OES) students, faculty and parents, who already sponsor 38 Congo women. OES sent a virtual army of vibrant OES Congo supporters.  Eighty OES students, teachers (French, Spanish & Chemistry), lots of parents, varsity sports teams (Girls and Boys Varsity Soccer; Girls & Boys Varsity Cross Country Teams), entire classes (French Culture & Communication), and the International Dorm Group joined us.  They attended pre-event work parties, ran, walked, served as photographers, sold t-shirts, took registrations, manned booths, blew up balloons, rang bells, and helped us with set up and tear down -- serving as the backbone of the day.

Our gratitude goes out to you all, and to our donors, for making this an ebullient celebration of life and human connection. The women and children of Congo need us as much today as they ever have.  For them to know that this many people care about them enough to work this hard and go this kind of distance, even in the rain and cold, means the world to them.

Your Portland Organizing Team,
Kristine Lebow, Stephanie Bond, Ariel Sherman-Cox, Laurie Rumker, Susan Phillips-Rumker, Francisca Thelin,  Ann Shannon, Sara Ryan and Linda Noval

Photo Gallery

Please visit this site to view photos from the 2008 Run for Congo Women!

For more information or to get involved in next year's planning, please contact Ann Shannon at PortlandCongoRun@yahoo.com.

To support a woman in Congo today, please click here!

We invite you to come out and have the experience of knowing that you are literally saving lives with every step you take.

That isn't a maybe. It isn't hypothetical or wishful thinking. I have met these women. I have seen their children. I have heard their stories, laughed with them, experienced the hope and joy in their singing and dancing. Over and over and over they tell me, "We have enough to eat now. I had the money to be treated / to get my child(ren) treated for malaria. My child is alive because of you!"

It's unbelievably powerful to summon your courage and put yourself on the line to ask people to sponsor a woman for a year, knowing it is literally going to save that woman's life and the lives of her children.

-- Lisa Shannon, Uvira, DR Congo. Feb 5, 2007