Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church is hosting its second annual Old Town Runaround 5k and 1-mile walk, a fundraiser for its summer youth missions programs. The race begins at the church Saturday, May 6 at 9 a.m., with registration from 7:30-8:30 a.m.
Online registration is open until May 3.
“We want to be the kind of church where everyone is involved in sending teams out on missions,” said Camille Ward, youth director at Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church. “God calls some to go, and calls others to prepare, or make a way, for others to go and serve.”
The church started the Runaround last year both to let people know what the youth at the church were doing, and also to give anyone in the community wanting to support the youth’s mission efforts an easy way to do so.
Every summer, middle-schoolers at the church go on a local mission trip. This year, they’ll spend a week camping in Harrison Bay State Park while spending their days volunteering with two local nonprofits: Widows Harvest, which ministers to widows and provides for needs such as home repairs, and Project 52, a nonprofit Christian organization serving the socioeconomically disadvantaged.
The church’s high school youth will go to Nicaragua, to the Vida Joven Young Life camp; and high school juniors and seniors will also go on an adventure and discipleship trip in Colorado.
The Runaround helps to lower the overall cost of trips for students, said Ward.
“We would love to bring people in from the community who don’t know much about our church to come out and learn about what we’re doing; we would love for God to use it in that way as well,” she said.
The cost to register online is $25 for the 5k or $15 for the walk, and $30 for the 5k or $20 for the walk the day of the race.
Register online for the run at smtwo.org/runaround. Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church is at 612 James Blvd. and can be reached at 886-2190.