Sisters Anne Wambach (left) and Linda Romey wove through downtown Erie streets on Saturday, May 10, in the Inner-City Neighborhood Art House Art & Sole 5-K. A record number of runners and walkers—well over 200—joined in the annual fundraiser for the Art House, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Dozens of volunteers hosted activities for kids in the Art House parking lot while local sports and business mascots meandered through the crowd and danced to the music that was only interrupted to announce the start of each event, including a 1-K kids run. Many donors and sponsors made the event possible, and City of Erie police officers stationed along the route, which went all the way to the lakefront before heading east and then returning to the Art House, kept runners and walkers safe in the streets.
"Thank you to everyone for helping to accomplish all we needed to do to have another successful event," said Kelly Stolar, Executive Director. "I could not be more thankful for the way today turned out. We are blessed that we have each other to lean on and count on."
Sister Anne is a past program director and executive director of the Inner-City Neighborhood Art House, a ministry the Benedictine Sisters of Erie established to empower youth through creative experiences, to engage them in positive self-expression, and to help them develop into confident and caring members of the community. The Art House building, the back drop to the photo above, has been on the corner of Tenth and Holland streets since 1995.
By the way, walker Sister Anne finished 11th out of 71 walkers and runner Sister Linda finished 112th out of 143 runners.
