Dear Family and Friends,

I invite you to join me as a partner in running my FIRST marathon on October 11, 2009 as part of TeamRISE to raise money for RISE International.  The vision of RISE is to work to rebuild the lives and communities of rural Angola by building schools.

Why Angola? A country rich with vast reserves of oil and diamonds, Angola was ravaged by 27 years of civil war which ended in 2002. Around that time a group of people from my local community went to Africa and began working with Angolan refugees that had been displaced by years of war.  RISE was eventually born out of that work. Their dream is to impact Angola through education, resolving to address the underlying obstacles by leading an effort to help rebuild the rural educational system.

The pilot program began in 2003 by building 5 primary schools. In six years that has expanded to 120 rural schools built in remote villages, bringing education to more than 50,000 children.  They remain focused on bringing schools to 100,000 additional students-the future leader of Angola.

Please consider donating to this wonderful organization. Join me in the hard work of running the race for those who cannot. I know you will be blessed by this gift.

One step at a time,

Karyn