The Guardian Shelter for Battered Families would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the participants of the second annual Purple Dress and Pub Crawl. The weather for the day presented a challenge for not only the 5K runners, but for the pub crawlers as well. The cool temperatures made those purple dresses seem shorter this year than last year.

We do want to thank those who stood the course and completed the run. The winner of the 5K run this year was Marcus Mathis. Jason McGehee came in second, and Mitch Ballard won third. Congratulations to them all. The winner of the Miss Purple Dress Run is Tyler Barr. Tyler has been associated with our program as a young man who helps us to move families into new homes and gathering donated furniture for our families. He is very deserving of his Barbie crown and trophy.

Our many thanks to a long list of sponsors for their support as well. We appreciate the giving nature of the businesses in the Natchez community.

Lastly, I want to express my gratitude to the planning committee for this event.

Rachel Odom and Ryan Richardson are the two young ladies who spearhead this fun event for us each year. Others include Renee Candú, Renee Cavin, Robin Christian, Martha Mitternight, Alicia Randall, Drew Thompson, Catherine McDaniel and Heather Martin. The staff of our program, Kim Johnson, Naomi Henry and Sandra Barr, joined in the fun, and we all had a great time.

Paul Miller was involved with needed transportation for anyone along the run or crawl that needed that service. Our fundraising goals have and continue to be that of community awareness while raising money for our program and to have fun while doing these. To date, we have been able to achieve both. Thank you Natchez for all you continue to do to run domestic violence out of Natchez.

 

Donna Miller

program director, The Guardian Shelter