Run for Mercy Marathon in St. Charles, MO

Mercy Ministries St. Louis residents cheered for their Run for Mercy marathon team at the starting line on Sunday morning at the Lewis and Clark Marathon and Half Marathon in St. Charles, MO. Participants for Team Mercy joined thousands of runners to enjoy the historic Missouri River Valley on foot and to help raise support and awareness for Mercy Ministries!

Volunteers, runners, staff and residents gathered the night before the race at the St. Louis home for a pre-race pasta party. Everyone enjoyed hearing personal testimonies from two current St. Louis residents who will be graduating soon. Victoria McCarter, Co-chair of the Mercy community board in St. Louis and Chair of the Run for Mercy Marathon Committee, also shared words of encouragement for our runners.

St. Louis Program Director, Melanie Harbert and Household Manager, Chetta Peniston also ran the half-marathon on Team Mercy! This was an exciting time for the residents to support staff from their very own home. One of the St. Louis residents, Lindsay, said, “Getting up at 4:00 am was well worth being able to cheer on the Mercy team! Witnessing this kind of selflessness by so many different people brought tears to my eyes as they crossed the finish line!

Now is a great opportunity for you to support Mercy Ministries by joining an existing Run for Mercy team, forming a new team or registering as an individual participant in a Run for Mercy race near you. Look for a race near you at www.runformercy.org.

Run for Mercy iPod Give Away!

Alright, Mercy fans! It’s time to put away your flip flops and pull out your running shoes. We are exactly 50 days away from Nashville’s first Run for Mercy 5K & Family Walk. There are all sorts of reasons that you should join us and run, walk or be a virtual runner. Your registration money goes towards Mercy Ministries—which will then in turn bless the life of one of our residents. We have seen over 90 girls graduate from the Nashville, Monroe and St. Louis home since January 2009…which means we are right on track with having our residents stay an average of six months. This is such a praise because we are able to have that many more girls come off of our waiting list. Another major praise is that we plan to open the doors of our first West Coast home in Sacramento, CA on October 1! There are so many exciting events happening at Mercy Ministries—that would not be possible without the support of our amazing donors and event registrants.

In honor of our first Run for Mercy 5K & Family Walk in Nashville, we are happy to share with you all sorts of incentives to signing up. THE FIRST incentive to announce is that we will be giving away awesome Mercy Ministries tote bags (the kind you can go grocery shopping with) with all sorts of local freebies inside to our first 200 registrants. Chick-Fil-A, The Perch, Smoothie King, The Cupcake Collection, 9 Fruits, DrinkHaus and more will be putting coupons into these bags—so sign up today so that you can partake in the yummy items around town! THE SECOND incentive to announce is that by registering for the event, you are also registering to win an 8gb iPod nano! A special drawing will be held on the day of the Run for Mercy 5K & Family Walk in Nashville. Only one winner will be selected and you must be registered to participate in this event to be eligible to win this prize.

Please spread the word about this fun event to your friends, family, churches, exercise groups and more! Get out in this gorgeous weather and start preparing for this race…and if you get really into it, and want a snazzy “Run for Mercy” t-shirt or pair of socks to wear as you train—check out the awesome “Run for Mercy” apparel on our online store: https://www.mercyministries.org/Store/c-9-run-for-mercy.aspx.