April 19, 2006

FAIRFAX, VA (April 19, 2006)--The 8th annual Aimee Willard Memorial 5K Fun Run/Walk has been set for Thursday, April 27, on George Mason's campus at Noon in front of the Center for the Performing Arts. For the first year Intercollegiate Athletics will run the Aimee Willard 5K in conjunction with the 10th Annual Victims Rights 5k, in cooperation with the Office of University Sexual Assault Services, GMU Police and the community.

This 5K Fun Run commemorates a victim of violence, Aimee Willard, and brings the community together in support of victim's rights in order to raise awareness for non-violence education. By combining our efforts with Mason and our local community we are hoping to bring greater awareness to anti-violence education.

Funds raised by the Athletic Department go to the Aimee Willard Endowment Scholarship Fund, which honors the memory of a former Patriot student-athlete. More than $100,000 has been raised for the Aimee Willard Scholarship Fund over the past seven years.

Willard was a two-sport athlete at Mason, playing soccer and lacrosse. She was a member of Mason's 1993 women's soccer team that was the NCAA Division I runner-up, and she was an All-Colonial Athletic Association and regional All-America selection in women's lacrosse in 1996. Although she lost her life due to a brutal act of violence near Philadelphia in June 1996, her legacy continues to live on.

U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) was one of several sponsors for the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act, which was passed by the U.S. Congress in 2000 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on Oct. 28, 2000. It has popularly become known as "Aimee's Law."

For more information and how to register, go to the school's website at www.gmu.edu and click on the Victims Rights button in the lower right hand corner.