Yesterday I enjoyed going to the school I adopted many years ago to help my friends at the Cowtown Marathon give away running shoes and running socks to the children. They were excited to get them. It felt like Christmas in February.
The children’s only 5K race sponsored by the Cowtown Marathon is in two weeks. No one else has a special race just for kids. I am delighted that over 5,000 of our area’s school children will run/walk. It has been named one of the top children’s running events in the United States.
The children have been training in their after-school running club since August. They have already participated in the C.A.L. F. Run in October and will also do the Zoo Run in April.
C.A.L.F. (which stands for Children’s Activities for Life and Fitness) is the charity beneficiary of the Cowtown. It also gives over $50,000 in grants to pay for over 5,000 low-income children to enter the race.
In addition, the Cowtown Marathon’s staff and volunteers go to over 100 schools, four or five a day, distributing about 5,000 shoes and socks and fits each child individually. Bravo to them for their hard work!
That’s why I have been one of the primary sponsors of C.A.L.F. and have served on its governing council since it was formed 10 years ago.
I go to the Rufino Mendoza Elementary School on the North Side of Fort Worth to mentor the students, support them financially, and give tips to the runners that I learned as I ran a marathon in all 50 states.
These are just more reasons why Fort Worth is such a great city to live in. I moved here after going to SMU Law School in Dallas and this is my 40th year as a resident – with 38 of them overlooking the the course of the marathon (my first one, another reason Cowtown is special to me) on the Trinity River.
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