Home Run Homeless
Posted On: April 4, 2009 by cdinThis story will make your eyes warm up. Maybe you will feel warm and grateful, hopeful and deeply touched. Like i did. There’s lots of stories and videos about the homeless. But this video was particularly special. The starring lady ran every early morning in one of Philly’s “grittiest” neighborhoods, right past street people in the predawn dark. Then, something magical happened.
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The running lady’s name is Ann Mullen. She kept running past a homeless shelter, and realized there must have been a good reason why. So, she made a life changing decision to ditch her promising career in communications and instead, create a running club for the homeless.
If the homeless could experience the natural runner’s high, she felt they could perhaps find the strength and promise to make a life changing transformation, running from trouble to new found hope.
The amazing thing is this. It worked.
The club provided job training and life skills in dozens of shelters. There were 100s of success stories. James Singleterry, formerly a drug addict, had lost everything, including his family.
After joining the running club, he found himself – the new James, the real James who is “willing to do anything to keep his life going right.” He’s got a job, hope, new friends. He’s run right past troubles toward a new life of happiness, success, belief in himself.
Ann Mullen made a profound acknowledgment of why she does what she does: “When you watch someone realize the potential inside of themselves, there’s nothing better than that.”
Ann Curry said, “What a heart!” Ann Mullen makes my heart soar.
Indeed. A great story and video. ? 
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