RESOURCES FOR RACE DIRECTORS

Operation Homefront Georgia and Kilometer Kids Named

Official Charity Partners of 2012 AJC Peachtree Road Race

Race participants encouraged to raise money for official charities, as well as

other charities of their choice, through CrowdRise platform 

ATLANTA, February 29, 2012 – The Atlanta Track Club, organizer of the AJC Peachtree Road Race, today announced that Operation Homefront Georgia Inc. and Kilometer Kids have been named the official charity partners of the 2012 AJC Peachtree Road Race.  This is the first year that the Atlanta Track Club will have charity partners for the AJC Peachtree Road Race.  

Operation Homefront Georgia provides emergency assistance to military families and wounded veterans in Georgia.  The organization is based in East Cobb and serves approximately 1,000 families each month.  Money raised through the 2012 AJC Peachtree Road Race will fund emergency financial grants to provide food and housing for Georgia military families in financial crisis.   

“We are honored and excited to be chosen by the Atlanta Track Club to be the official charity partner for the 2012 AJC Peachtree Road Race,” said Kimberly Scofi, president of Operation Homefront Georgia Inc.  “Operation Homefront Georgia and the Atlanta Track Club are similar in that we both strive to be an inspiration to others while engaging those in the communities we serve.”  

The Atlanta Track Club’s Kilometer Kids is an incentive-based youth running program that empowers children with the knowledge they need to make smart lifestyle choices. The program launched in 2007 with one location serving 38 kids.  Today, Kilometer Kids impacts more than 2,800 kids from 53 schools in at-risk communities throughout the Atlanta region.  The money raised through the 2012 AJC Peachtree Road Race charity program will allow the organization to broaden its impact in the Atlanta community.  

“With 60,000 participants, the AJC Peachtree Road Race is an incredible platform to help raise funds for well-deserved charities like Operation Homefront Georgia and Kilometer Kids,” said Tracey Russell, executive director of the Atlanta Track Club.  “Through our official charity partner program as well as CrowdRise, we’ll be able to see what a positive impact this event can have on the metro Atlanta community and beyond.” 

Event participants are encouraged to raise money for the two official charity partners, as well as any charities of their choice, through the Atlanta Track Club’s partnership with CrowdRise.  CrowdRise, an impact site designed to make fundraising easy and fun, offers a custom built platform and 'game theory' that has proven to be a huge asset to runners’ and charities’ fundraising efforts.  Through CrowdRise, the AJC Peachtree Road Race charity campaign will be executed on one unifying platform making it easier to track, coordinate and optimize the campaign while sharing the philanthropic story of the event in the most compelling way.   

Charities interested in raising funds through the AJC Peachtree Road Race on CrowdRise should email Peachtree@CrowdRise.com with the following information by Thursday, March 15: 

·       Charity Name

·       Contact Information (including email)

·       Charity’s Mission

·       Commitment to use CrowdRise as a fundraising platform 

The 43rd running of the AJC Peachtree Road Race will take place on Wednesday, July 4, 2012.  Additional details regarding the 2012 AJC Peachtree Road Race including registration information, start wave placement details and specifics on the Peachtree Health and Fitness Expo are available at peachtreeroadrace.org.    

About the AJC Peachtree Road Race

The AJC Peachtree Road Race is a 10K event that takes place every Fourth of July in Atlanta, Georgia.  The first Peachtree was held in 1970 and featured 110 runners.  The AJC Peachtree Road Race is now the largest 10K running event in the world with 60,000 participants.  The AJC Peachtree Road Race is perhaps most famous for the coveted AJC Peachtree Road Race T-shirt, which is handed out to all the event finishers.  For more information on the AJC Peachtree Road Race visit peachtreeroadrace.org or ajc.com/peachtree.   

About the Atlanta Track Club

The Atlanta Track Club (ATC) is a nonprofit organization established to inspire and engage the community to achieve health and fitness through running. With more than 16,000 members, the ATC is the second largest running organization in the United States. In addition to the AJC Peachtree Road Race (peachtreeroadrace.org) – the largest 10K running event in the world, the Atlanta Marathon and Marathon Relay (atlantamarathon.org), and the Atlanta Half Marathon and Thanksgiving Day 5K (atlantahalfmarathon.org), the Atlanta Track Club directs more than 25 running events per year.  Through the support of its members and volunteers, the Atlanta Track Club also maintains a number of community initiatives including organizing and promoting the Kilometer Kids youth running program to metro Atlanta youth, honoring high school cross country and track and field athletes through the ATC’s All-Metro Banquets and supporting the Grady Bicycle EMT program.  For more information on the Atlanta Track Club, visit atlantatrackclub.org. 

About The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the leading source – both in print and online – of news, information and advertising for metropolitan Atlanta, reaching a total print and online audience of 2 million people each week. Every month, nearly 2.3 million unique visitors access the newspaper's websites, including ajc.com and accessAtlanta.com. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is part of Cox Media Group, a publishing, digital media and broadcasting subsidiary of Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises.

About Cox Media Group
Cox Media Group, Inc. is an integrated broadcasting, publishing, direct marketing and digital media company that includes the national advertising rep firms of Cox Reps. With $1.8 billion in revenue, the company operations include 15 broadcast television stations and one local cable channel, 85 radio stations, eight daily newspapers and more than a dozen non-daily publications, and more than 100 digital services.  Additionally, CMG owns and operates Valpak, one of the leading direct marketing companies in North America.   For more information about Cox Media Group, please check us out online at www.coxmediagroup.com.