- Last Updated on Friday, 12 August 2022 00:30
5K Run / 1 Mile Walk to Benefit Homeless Veterans
City Mission’s seventh annual Mission Possible 5K Run/1 Mile Walk, presented by AccuTrex Products, Inc. and benefiting the Crabtree Kovacicek Veterans House for homeless veterans, will be held at Peterswood Park in Venetia on Saturday, August 6 at 8am.
“This is a unique run because it was conceived to benefit a shelter for homeless veterans, and veterans feature prominently in the opening ceremonies and the event itself,” said City Mission Chief Development Officer, Dr. Sally Mounts, a retired Lt. Colonel in the US Army.
The event was started seven years ago by Jeff McCartney, a local realtor and board member for the City Mission Board of Directors, as a way to raise funds in support of City Mission’s Crabtree Kovacicek Veterans House, which opened in July 2018 and houses 22 homeless veterans, helping to restore them to independent living.
“God’s will is for us to help those who need help – the poor, the lost, and the widowed,” said McCartney on why he started this fundraiser for our veterans. “His grace was so abundant on me, I just felt that I could not do nothing. And by the grace and love of Jesus Christ, we’re now able to help people who we could not help in the past.”
This year’s Presenting Sponsor for the event is AccuTrex Products, Inc., a manufacturing company headquartered in Canonsburg. AccuTrex President and CEO, Marty Beichner, was named Pittsburgh’s Vetrepeneur of the Year in 2020, a prestigious honor presented annually to one of the region’s outstanding veteran business owners.
“We’re supporting the City Mission’s run to benefit the veterans at the Crabtree Kovacicek Veterans House,” said Beichner. “And we’re very proud to be a supporter of the race.”
“Marty and his wife Judy are long-time supporters of City Mission,” said Sally Mounts. “Marty was a Corpsman on the ground in Vietnam with the 2nd Battalion 26th Marines, and he understands veterans’ needs at such a visceral level.”
Last year, our Veterans Program had a 77% success rate helping homeless veterans to restore their hope and dignity and return to independent living. Recently, when Ed, a Navy veteran, could no longer get up the steps to his apartment due to hip and leg pain, and he had nowhere else to turn, he knew where he needed to go. He had been to City Mission nearly thirty years ago. “I was on a path of destruction,” Ed said. “My life was empty.” When he first came to the Mission, he formed a lifelong relationship with God and turned his life around. Over the years, Ed has come back to the Mission from time to time whenever he would fall on hard times, but his current stay at the Mission is his first stay at the Crabtree Kovacicek Veterans House. “As long as I continue to put God first,” he said, “I know everything will fall into place.”
“I’m just really glad we have a facility that meets his needs,” added Dean Gartland, City Mission President/CEO.
You can help other veterans just like Ed turn their lives around. Learn more or register today for the seventh annual Mission Possible 5K Run/1 Mile Walk at www.missionpossiblerun.org.
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