To the Editor:

The Selma Youth Development Center, in partnership with other community agencies, is in its fourth year of sponsoring The Defiant Run Road Race in Selma.

It will be held on Saturday, March 31, 2007.

The Defiant Run is meant to promote racial understanding in a community which has historically been divided along racial lines by pairing participants of different ethnicity.

Participants are bound at the wrist and are therefore required to work together to complete the 13-mile obstacle course, either running or walking. In order to finish the course, the pair must communicate and work together.

Thus, they must focus their individual strengths as opposed to their differences.

The Defiant Run’s goal: Promote teamwork, break down stereotypes and create mutual respect of diverse cultures.

The Selma Youth Development Center believes it is vital that we in the community make every effort to understand cultural differences and allow this understanding to encourage public policy in order to better address our troubled education system, foster healthcare access for all and promote community development.

Attempting to solve these public ills, along with teen pregnancy, drug abuse and an over-burdened judicial system, from a bias prospective could cause further community division.

The Defiant Run is growing in recognition throughout the United States as an outstanding way to celebrate the diversity present in our community while allowing organizations to show their support of our varied cultures.

Having said this, we extend an invitation to all Selma community organizations to get involved in the 2007 Defiant Run by sponsoring a team of participants.

We are inviting all churches, businesses and schools to sponsor a team to represent their organization in the Defiant Run. One or more teams of two participants can represent your organization. Participants can also walk a one-mile course.

Sponsorship requires a $25 donation per person.

We are extending a special invitation to our city and county government to get involved by asking you to assume a leadership role in helping us encourage and organize participation of our community in support of this event.

To learn how, contact Frank Hardy at the SYDC at 872-0426 or 399-8099 or visit us on the web at www.defiantrun.com.

Entry forms are also available at the Selma Dallas County Centre for Commerce, 912 Selma Ave., Selma.

We believe this is an opportunity for the Selma community to set an example for the rest of the world by showing the power of forgiveness. We hope you will support this Celebration of Diversity in our Selma community.

Thank you for your support.

Defiant Run Organizing Committee