Middle school youth from Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church serve alongside Widow’s Harvest at Harrison Bay State Park during a local missions trip last year. The church youth group is raising funds for its mission trips this summer through the Old Town Runaround, a race beginning at SMPC set for Saturday, May 14.Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church is hosting the inaugural Old Town Runaround, a 5k race and 1-mile walk, Saturday, May 14 beginning at 9 a.m. The race is a fundraiser for the church’s youth mission trips this summer, said SMPC Youth Director Camille Ward.
“The money raised goes toward lowering the overall cost of summer trips for our students,” she said, explaining that students are charged roughly half the actual cost of the trip, while the other half comes in faith from the church budget and fundraising.
Ward said the youth group would love to raise $10,000 through race participation and sponsorship.
“It was important to us to do something that would really involve the students and leaders going on the trip, and to do something open and available to the whole community,” she said, as to why the group chose to organize the race as a fundraiser for this year’s trips. “It’s a way for us to outreach into the community and be able to show at large where God is calling the students this summer and how he’s at work in their hearts and their lives.”
Middle-schoolers will spend a week at Harrison Bay State Park with Christian mission organization Son Servants serving Widows Harvest, a ministry focused on helping widows in distress, said Ward.