RUN FOR FREEDOM
Uniting families: RUNegades event highlights bail fund mission
NORRISTOWN » Rain and snow didn’t stop people from getting outside Monday morning to participate in the MLK Freedom Run in downtown Norristown.
Nearly 50 people participated in the inaugural event hosted by the Reuniting Family Bail Fund and RUNegades, according to Heather Lewis, executive director of the Reuniting Family Bail Fund.
The day began at Theatre Horizon, located at 401 DeKalb St., in Norristown as participants took time to honor the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Despite the weather, we’re out here,” Lewis said. “They endured fire hoses, and dogs, and police brutality, and rocks, and bricks, and bottles, and fire to march so that we could be standing here all of us together unified with the same goal and mission.”
The idea for the MLK Freedom Run originated about a year ago, according to Amon Gibson, RUNegades’ director of development. The Phoenixville-based running group held its own service day last January in Phoenixville, he said.
“What we find is that real wellness is not something that we can achieve on our own, it’s something that depends upon our surrounding community,” said RUNegades Executive Director Michael Ragozzino. “By showing up, and participating, and engaging, and really helping to better the community, they also achieve a sense of wellness for themselves.”
Gibson stressed he “wanted to make sure that we spread the love a little bit.” Having previously established a relationship with Theatre Horizon in Norristown, Gibson also connected with Lewis, and learned more about the Reuniting Family Bail Fund, which has a mission of “supporting families through criminal justice reform,” according to the organization’s website.
“I think this is historic be
cause the movement that we’re doing, criminal justice reform, bail reform, even just community reengaging community is a modern day civil rights movement,” Lewis said.
Montgomery County Commissioners’ Vice Chairman Ken Lawrence Jr. told MediaNews Group that he came out to Monday’s event to “support the bail fund, and to support my friend,
Heather Lewis.”
“I think it’s great how Martin Luther King Jr. Day has grown, and there’s so many different ways to serve throughout today, but I think the work of the bail fund happens year round so it hopefully raises awareness of that,” Lawrence said.
Prior to the start of Monday morning’s walk and run, participants heard remarks from organizers and advocates inside of Theatre Horizon. Gibson and Lewis agree they’d like to continue holding the MLK Day Freedom Run for years to come.
“I was very moved by how many people turned out despite the weather,” said Nell Bang-Jensen, Theatre Horizon’s artistic director. “It’s for such a wonderful cause, and the reunification of families through the Montco Bail Fund, and it really is an honor for me personally, and Theatre Horizon, for us to play a small part in it.”
Norristown Artist Mydera Taliah, who also serves as Theatre Horizon’s education director, crafted an original poem for the occasion entitled “The Cost of Peace” as she paid tribute to
King. Taliah also has Haya Grounds Gallery, located on Main Street.
“I was challenging the idea of being honest with myself and also celebrating victories while recognizing there’s still a lot on the table to be won and everybody has a lot of work that has to be done,” she said.
MLK Freedom Run attendees walked over to the county courthouse where a Black Lives Matter mural is painted along Swede Street. They could be seen linking arms as they walked down the street. Participants then
had the choice to walk or run the five-mile course.
“We incorporated those concepts of the walk and the run and these stops along the way to make sense for both organizations,” Lewis said.
The route featured several locations that were stops along the Underground Railroad, according to Lewis, including the “Schuylkill River, culvert tunnels that spiderweb from Lafayette (Street) up to the state hospital,” the 200 block of East Penn Street, which Lewis said was “the first stop of the Charles
Blockson Family,” as well as the “Ebenezer Baptist Church, and the Blockson House, at Green and Spruce (streets).”
“This will be something very historic, and unique, and valuable to this day and every day moving forward,” Lewis said.
The course ended with participants cleaning up the area around CVS, located at the intersection of DeKalb and Oak streets, according to Lewis.
“We’re dedicated to the beautification of Norristown,” Gibson said.