This new road race will serve as the culmination and focal point of a community-wide fund raising project to benefit the Morris Memorial, the rural Chatham community's youth-serving agency. The multi-town area served by the Morris Memorial is a rural locality with a population of approximately 15,000. Old Chatham, a hamlet of less than 750 people is situated within the Town of Chatham (as are the hamlets of East Chatham, Chatham Center, North Chatham and the Village of Chatham), 25 minutes south of Albany, 50 minutes north of Kingston and 15 minutes west of the Massachusetts state line.

Generous sponsorship from local businesses and individuals has underwritten all costs associated with producing a first class road racing event. All participant registration fees as well as future contributions in support of this event will fully benefit the Morris Memorial.

The Morris Memorial, founded through the generous philanthropy of George Morris in 1912, is a not-for-profit corporation serving the Chatham community's children, teens and families. The agency's existence has relied for the most part on the generosity and support of local businesses, organizations and individuals. The Morris Memorial strives to offer positive youth development opportunities and delinquency prevention activities.

The Old Chatham Hunt Country 5K will help generate the funds needed to implement new educational, recreational and social development opportunities to meet the changing needs and interests of the Chatham-area' youth.

This charitable community-based organization is best known for owning and operating a youth center on Park Row, in the Village of Chatham.

The center, known locally as "the Morris", has been a safe harbor for Chatham's young people for 85 years.

Primarily focused on providing structured after-school and weekend activities during the school year, the Morris offers organized athletics, home work assistance, arts and crafts, board games, pool, video-games, and a TV room. Plans are being developed to commence a performing and visual arts program. The Morris serves youth in elementary, middle and high school and has always been a great place for teens, who otherwise would have no place to gather, to simply "hang out" and be themselves.

The Morris is managed by an on-site program director and three part-time assistants. The Morris also serves as the home base for several other human service groups and offers a meeting place for other organizations. A commercial fitness center rents space in the basement of the building. The first floor gym facility is used at night for adult recreational programming after scheduled youth activities are concluded.

In addition to on-site activities, the Morris Memorial sponsors in-community programs including a recreational fall soccer league, serving nearly 300 girls and boys in grades 1 through 8. The Morris also sponsors two boys' traveling basketball teams. In 1994, the Morris Memorial began the Chatham Gold Youth Track & Field and Cross Country programs. Most of the event-day volunteers for the 5K Benefit Race will come from the pool of adult volunteers who assist with the Chatham Gold programs as well as the parents of children who participate in the Chatham Gold programs.

Except for the few staff at the Morris youth center on Park Row, all other programs and activities are administered by volunteers and the Board of Directors. The agency's modest budget for operating the center and expenses related to off-site programs are covered by a combination of support from the Towns of Chatham and Ghent and the Village of Chatham, the Columbia County Youth Bureau, the New York State Division for Youth, support from the United Way of Columbia & Greene Counties, a small endowment fund and contributions.

M. Scott Wood, owner of MetzWood Harder Insurance, is the President of the Board of Directors of the Morris Memorial.