“Running for a Dream” helps women take new strides in life

JACKSON, Tenn.—Runners are helping women take new strides in life and repair their broken dreams.

“When I got here everything changed and it was like another perception of life,” Meredith Gatlin said. She said she lived at the Dream Center and went through their program for two years.

Nearly 100 runners Saturday morning are helping these women make new strides.

“It’s so much more than people see it as a homeless shelter for me it’s a breakthrough and a new way of life for me,” Dream Center resident Angela Frank Scates said. “I was caught up in drug abuse and I wanted to get my life back on track and get back in society, functioning, I came here after I lost my daughter.”

Saturday morning the center hosted its 7th annual “Running for a Dream” 5-K, one of its main fundraisers.

“I was unemployed and I didn’t have a house and I came to ask for a place to live but really what I needed was God and that’s what this place taught me,” Gatlin said.

“This is about family and that’s what we are about restoration of the family and I really think we need that in our society today,” Dream Center Executive Director Gail Gustafson said.

“I work full time now in the ministry at the women of hope and I just got married so you know it’s like God has this really awesome plan for me but I didn’t know it until i got here,” Gatlin said.

“It gives me hope, it means hope and a new life for me and my daughter,” Scates said.

The Dream Center said they hope to add a 10-K to the annual Fundraiser next year.