[S]everal hundred Vermonters from around the state gathered at the Montpelier High School track Sunday morning to run a Race Against Racism and listen to speakers discuss race in Vermont.
Sophomores Hope Petraro, Faith Bolques and Izzy Maine-Torres planned the event during their summer vacations with help from teachers and adults in the community, said Montpelier High School social studies teacher Heather McLane.
Proceeds from the race entry fee and concessions went to several social justice organizations, including Black Lives Matter Vermont, Migrant Justice, and the Montpelier High School Diversity Club, according to the event’s Facebook page.
The activist theater group Bread and Puppet also performed at the event, McLane said.
The event, McLane said, brought together “a really good mix of ages” and participants from as far away as Brattleboro and Burlington. Twinfield Union School in Plainfield sent a bus of students, she said.
McLane said Petraro, the event founder and lead student organizer, “took on the hard jobs without complaint,” going door-to-door to local businesses to ask for money and “reaching out to strangers in other parts of the state to ask them to speak.”
Petraro delivered a speech at the event in which she said “there isn’t really an active dialogue around race in Vermont perhaps because race doesn’t hold the same relevance always to white people,” according to WCAX.
On its event page, Petraro wrote that “the Race Against Racism was necessary before Charlottesville, but is even more relevant now.”
Recently, racist graffiti has appeared in several locations in Vermont.
The event organizers hope to repeat Sunday’s race and other activities again next year.
McLane said the organizers “learned some things and will make some changes to improve the event for next year.”
