Over 3,000 participants chose to run in the Atlanta Mission 5K Race to End Homelessness last year, braving the mid-February cold. But for the many homeless individuals on the Atlanta streets, being out in the cold, day and night throughout the winter, is not a choice they freely make.

This year, join us at Centennial Olympic Park at 8:15 am on February 18 to help offer these men, women, and children a choice. Each race registration will fund one night of shelter and services for a person who would otherwise be out on the streets in the cold. Donors, community members, volunteers, and Atlanta Mission clients will come together to help end homelessness, a particularly dangerous experience in the bitter winter months.

Whether you volunteer, run in the race, or support it financially, you’ll feel the positivity, excitement and hope in the air when you arrive. Volunteers help coordinate the run, and the runners are given direction and do warm-up activities before embarking on the route, which winds through sectioned-off lanes on downtown Atlanta streets.

Said one resident who participated in the 2016 run, a man who had been battling drug addiction and a deep crisis of the spirit, “I never knew how much I was struggling inside. The Atlanta Mission gave me this foundation I have right now…They helped me find a new life. Today, I’m running for myself and the guys at the Atlanta Mission. Some of them can’t run, but I ran for them, because I know we can overcome it.”

Other Atlanta Mission clients who have participated in the race stress the importance of being able to actually finish something—which many have not been able to do in a long time. It also represents an opportunity to get together with new people and be part of something healthy, rather than feeling as though they are on the forgotten fringes of society.

You can help take the chill out of winter for the homeless with your participation. Register for the Atlanta Mission 5K Race here, either as a single runner, or as part of a team—start your own or join an existing one. By running, you’ll also be participating in an official AJC Peachtree Road Race Qualifying Event prior to the 2017 lottery.