FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – September 14, 2012

DAYTON, Ohio - For a special group of runners participating in the Air Force 5K and Half Marathon on Friday, September 14 and Saturday, September 15, every step is laced with memories and honors those who’ve paid the ultimate price in service to country. 

Many of the runners are family members of our fallen military heroes. The funds raised by the runners will help the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), the national organization that has provided comfort and care to more than 35,000 people grieving the deaths of America’s fallen military heroes and caregivers assisting them since 1994.

Spectators on the course are encouraged to cheer for the TAPS runners, who wear distinctive red, white, and blue singlets and carry photos of the fallen service members they run to remember on the backs of their shirts. 

TAPS Run and Remember Team director, Marie Campbell, of Fort Worth, Texas, will run the half marathon on Saturday to remember her late husband Air Force Sergeant Dee Campbell, who died in 1996 when a terrorist bomb took the lives of 19 airmen at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. Campbell founded the team in 2000 when she ran the Marine Corps Marathon with another military widow. She organizes hundreds of runners around the nation annually to run in memory of our fallen heroes.

Karen Razo, of Tipton, Ind., will run the half marathon on Saturday in memory of Air Force Technical Sergeant Ryan Balmer and Air Force Technical Sergeant Jessica Sweet. She found out about their deaths after re-connecting with an old high school friend on Facebook and serves in the Air Force.

Military widow Rachel Smith and a team of runners will run the 5K tonight at 6:30pm in memory of her husband, Sergeant James Smith, who died in 2011 at Fort Campbell.  “Being able to connect with other widows has made me feel that I'm not alone. I love giving back to a cause that has helped me out so much and I know is helping others out every single day!”

More information about the race is available at http://www.usafmarathon.com/

About the TAPS Run & Remember Team
The TAPS “Run and Remember” team fields teams in dozens of races nationwide year round who run to honor and remember our fallen military while raising support for TAPS. Many of the runners are family members of the fallen and some are community supporters who care. Get more information about upcoming races and team activities at www.taps.org under Get Involved, Run. More than 500 runners will participate in the Marine Corps Marathon in October 2012.

About TAPS
Since its founding in 1994 by bereaved military families, TAPS has helped more than 35,000 grieving military family members and their caregivers. TAPS provides peer-based emotional support, grief and trauma resources, seminars for adults, Good Grief Camps for children, connections to community-based care, casualty casework assistance, and a 24/7 resource and information help line for all who have been affected by a death in the Armed Forces. Services are provided free of charge. For more information go to www.taps.org or call the toll-free resource and information help line at 800.959.TAPS (8277).

Media Contact for TAPS: Ami Neiberger-Miller, office 202.588.8277, ami@taps.org 

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