Ribbon Run 2014

Next time you’re on the Beltline, put on your customer-survey hat and ask a few folks this question:

What’s the missing ingredient in Atlanta?

The answers you’ll get will be entertaining!  You might hear about lower rent, less traffic, stronger schools…you also might hear about better connection, neighborly neighbors, safe streets, interdependent living –  in other words, community!

Living in a true community where each resident is treasured is a dream for all of us.  The Atlanta Dream Center, from their home just west of Historic Fourth Ward Park, is on the bleeding edge of building exactly this type of place.

The Dream Center creates community through their mission to reach, rescue, and restore their neediest neighbors.  Heard of the infamous Boulevard corridor?  That’s ground zero for the Dream Center, known for engaging children without hope, women without protection, and men without homes.  Last year they rescued 103 women out of sex trafficking, and they did it with passionate workers on a shoestring budget.

More funding means more restoration in Eastside Beltline ‘hoods.  That’s where The Ribbon Run comes in.  This 5k event on Saturday May 10th raises funds for the Atlanta Dream Center, so more people like these can be reached, rescued, and restored:

• Rosie, who was abandoned by her mother, became a regular at the Dream Center’s Metro Kidz program, and is now the first person in her family to graduate high school, not have a child in her teen years, and go to college

• ‘Linda’, who at age 17 was being sold for sex by her pimp several times a day, contracted HIV/AIDS, encountered Dream Center workers after being robbed and beaten, and through time and hard work with the ADC is now clean, with her own apartment and legal income

• David, a 22 year-old homeless man with damaged family connections, who through relationships at the Dream Center is being changed and now has his own work and living space, and is being restored to his family

These folks changed because they saw they are treasured, and are now part of a true community.  This is what the Beltline was built to create!  You can help grow this community by supporting The Ribbon Run 5k.  Register here, ask for donations, and tell your friends on the Beltline.  See you on May 10th!