On Monday, country music star Dierks Bentley‘s wife Cassidy Black Bentley successfully completed the Boston Marathon for a second time in an amazing 3 hours and 26 minutes! This time she ran to support a cause dear to her heart— Nashville’s Safe Haven, a homeless shelter for families.
According to its website, Safe Haven is the only shelter-to-housing program of its kind in Middle Tennessee that accepts the entire homeless family. They keep the family together and provide comprehensive services that empower them to achieve lasting self-sufficiency. Safe Haven also helps families experiencing homelessness by providing for their immediate needs of shelter and stability.
Prior the race, Cassidy posted on Instagram that the hours leading up to the marathon was more emotional than she was expecting, “I spent 30 minutes last night trying to write and rewrite a post thanking him [Dierks] for the tshirts, the encouragement…everything. It’s useless. I don’t have the words. I’ll never have them. Also feeling so acutely aware of time passing. How 3 years ago I was here with an infant and small kids…so much has changed. The Safe Haven families are very much in my heart this morning.”
Through her fundraising efforts via CrowdRise, she raised over $24,000 for the worthwhile cause with generous donations still pouring in! Many of Nashville’s elite can be found among the donors list such as Nicole Kidman, Sheryl Crow, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, and Kix Brooks.
Upon finishing the grueling athletic feat, Cassidy was greeted at the finish line by her four biggest fans— Dierks, Evie, Jordan, and little Knox.
Before making her way to Boston, Cassidy got candid about her hopes for her second Boston Marathon journey, “…this year I wanted to find a way to use my run to connect with people and help others. I wanted to give it meaning beyond crossing the finish line or achieving a certain time (although I do want to do that too!). To that end, I’ve decided to run to create awareness and raise money for Safe Haven Family Shelter of Nashville, an organization that does life-changing work on behalf of homeless families. Safe Haven keeps families who are homeless together, provides them with shelter and eventually permanent housing along with the therapy, support and training needed to gain self-sufficiency and rebuild their lives. My family has been involved with them for a few years and I’ve seen up close the incredibly important, desperately needed, inspiring work they do and I’m thrilled to be running in their honor and in honor of present and future families who need Safe Haven.”
We think she achieved her big goals! Congratulations to Cassidy on completing the Boston Marathon and kudos to her for stepping up to help Tennessee families in need!
