By Crystal McGough
For The Tribune
CLAY — “It’s like going on a missions trip without having to pack your bags.”
That is how Taylor United Methodist Church Lay Pastor Bryan Brown said one of his church members described the World Vision 6K for Water that the church will be hosting at Cosby Lake this Saturday, May 6.
World Vision is a non-profit organization that offers child sponsorship and goes into Third World countries to build fresh water wells that supply clean water for villages.
“That’s what this is all about,” Brown said. “Plus it obviously is going to help their health and also it would keep their kids in school so they don’t have to spend three to four hours in retrieving water if they have a well in their community. It’s multifaceted in what the benefits are.”
Taylor UMC began planning to participate in the global 6K race over six weeks ago after Brown received an email from iDisciple, a family life organization that the church uses for references and resources. Brown said that he believes this is World Vision’s second annual global 6K, but it will be the first event for our local community.
“It’s our first time to do it in the community of Clay,” he said. “(iDisciple) had a talking point in their email about this and our church was meting that afternoon, so I proposed it as an opportunity to get the community together with the church and hope to have a community event. Everyone at church was behind it, so we just took it from there.”
A 6K is 3.728 miles, which will include one full lap around the lake and three laps around a smaller loop trail. Brown said that to make the race a true 6K, the start and finish lines will not be in the same place.
While participants can pre-register online at worldvision6k.org, there will also be a registration and check-in table at the park at 8 a.m. Saturday morning.
“Even if they don’t register online, if you wake up that morning and decide, ‘Hey, I want to do a 6K at Cosby Lake,’ you can come down and register,” Brown said.
Those who do plan to register online can go to worldvision6k.org and type Taylor UMC in the search field. They will then be directed to the roster list where they can select Taylor UMC – GroupH20. Online registration can be done through Saturday morning.
The registration fee is $50 for ages 15 and up, and $25 for ages 14 and under. There is no fee for infants.
The race will officially begin at 9 a.m., with runners on the front line, followed by those walking, and finally participants with strollers. There will be a group photo shoot before the race begins and a person timing those participants who wish to be timed during the race.
“There are some things that will be happening during the actual 6K that’s a surprise to kind of make it more impactful as they either walk or run the event to hopefully drive it home about why they are doing a 6K instead of a 5K and what that means to the children they are doing it for over in Africa,” Brown said.
According to worldvision.org, “Six kilometers is the average distance that people in the developing world walk for water – water that is often contaminated with life-threatening diseases.”
“Typically, for all intents and purposes, that is a child’s duty in a Third World country,” Brown said. “It takes them anywhere between two and three-and-a-half hours everyday to go and retrieve unclean water.”
Participants who pre-register online will also receive in the mail a running package from World Vision that will include a t-shirt and a running bib with the picture and biography of a child who is waiting to be sponsored.
“On the running bib is a child that is not yet sponsored by World Vision, but waiting on a sponsor,” Brown said. “When you receive that t-shirt and running bib, it has a picture of that child, where they were born, their age, and it has a little information about that child. During the process of registering or walking, you have the opportunity to actually sponsor that child and walk for that child specifically.”
There will be a sponsorship booth set up at Cosby Lake Saturday, where race participants and non-participants alike can sign up to sponsor a child through World Vision. The cost of sponsorship is $39 per month.
“World Vision had kind of put two things together here, making awareness of water and also providing an opportunity to those people that have never sponsored a child through World Vision,” Brown said. “They have the opportunity to do so at that time. That goes to further the water, health care and education for that child and community.”
Additionally, the church will offer a second opportunity for participants to sponsor their child at Taylor UMC’s Celebration Sunday on May 7, during it’s 10:30 a.m. service. Participants are invited to wear their World Vision t-shirts and bring their running bibs with them to the service.
Brown said that anyone who registers Thursday or later will most likely not receive their running package until next week, however their name will show up on the roster and they will be provided with a temporary bib to use at the event on Saturday.
“If they register at the event, we do have actual bibs with a child’s name and bio on it that we will give them,” he said. “They will have the opportunity at that time to sponsor that child or they will be invited to come Sunday to the Celebration Sunday and sponsor that child then. If they decide to sponsor that child later, they will have the information in the sponsorship package.”
There will not be extra t-shirts available for those who register at the event, but those participants will receive a t-shirt from World Vision through the mail sometime next week.
World Vision will also provide a metal for each 6K participant. The medals will be in the image of orange jerry cans on blue ribbons, Brown said. Jerry cans are generally five-gallon square cans used to carry fuel.
“In a lot of Third World countries, they don’t use those for fuel,” Brown said. “They use it to carry water. One full will run about 40 pounds. You can just imagine lugging that back approximately two miles from where you had to try to find some of the cleanest water. Each person will be individually medaled as they cross the finish line and (we will) let them know what they’ve done and how they have impacted a child across the world.”
Brown said that Taylor UMC’s goal is to have at least 50 participants and to raise $3,000 in donations. As of Tuesday afternoon, 29 people have pre-registered for the race and the local event has already raised over half of its goal, $1,510. This year’s donations will provide for children and villages in Haiti, India, and 12 countries in Africa.
“It’s just a wonderful thing to think about, that you get to positively impact a child’s life and their family with what you are doing here in Clay, Alabama, Brown said. “This is what is going around globally this Saturday. It’s awe-inspiring if you think about it.”