Friendship Runner Needs Financial Friends
Friendship Runner Needs Financial Friends
News Editors
Great Balkan-USA Friendship Run
ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 16, 2004
Famed runner Stan Cottrell is seeking $300,000 in funding for an ultra distance run to help aid the non-profit Intercountry Adoption Congress (IAC) in its quest to help orphaned children find parents and to also promote the spirit of friendship between nations.
The event, known as the Great Balkan-USA Friendship Run will begin April 26th with a series of conferences, concerts and a variety of interactive events held in towns and villages throughout Bulgaria and Crimea while the cross country run is being held.
People from the US, Canada, Latin America and Western Europe will join Cottrell in this innovative outreach that organizers have described, "of historic proportions."
Cottrell, 60, has been running since childhood, winning his first race at a country fair in south central Kentucky. Since then he has logged more than 175,000 miles, run across the United States twice, ran a 12 country run from Scotland to the Rock of Gibraltar, a 2,153 mile run across China and 24 other countries promoting the spirit of friendship. Furthermore, Cottrell's runs have raised over $4 million dollars for children all over the world.
During his Friendship Runs people of all ages join Cottrell for as long as they choose and he doesn't mind at all. When his team comes through small towns and remote villages, Cottrell shakes hands, hugs children, spends time encouraging them that they, too, have the gift of friendship to give to the world.
Cottrell, an author, businessman, and motivational speaker living in Georgia, says sports, and running in particular, has a way of bringing people together. Cottrell states, "In every person there is a child waiting and wanting to come out and play."
"Running is a great forum for breaking down walls of division between people of different cultures," Cottrell says. "When people come together and experience first hand some of the sad things in life such as a child needing a parent, something happens. Through the run and the medium and magic of film, we can share this message with the world. Together, we can keep hope alive. I am under obligation that the running I do must be more than about me."
Mission Possible and Global Action and its international partners will join IAC in coordinating the event.
In order for FSA to accomplish this vision of and making a lasting difference, we need your prayerful support and gifts. Friendship Sports Association, Inc. is a 501(C)(3) tax exempt organization incorporated under the same regulations as any other charitable organization. You will receive a receipt of your gift for tax purposes. For additional information, please visit http://www.fssports.org
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