Generální ředitelství

Sunday, 9th of May in the Czech republic was not only symbolized by official commemorations of the Victory Day, but also a festival of sport was held. On Sunday, the Volkswagen Prague Marathon with over 10,000 attenders took place in Prague and many smaller sub-races were part of it. One of them was the Yellow Ribbon Run, which the Czech Republic hosted for the first time. With a yellow ribbon on their t-shirts, 32 runners - divided into 8 relay teams - participated in the Yellow Ribbon Run. By taking part in this event, runners supported the idea of reintegration of ex-offenders into the society. Many of the contestants broke their limits, because they had not been particularly keen runners prior to the run. Even though they did not finish on the top of the chart, completing the run meant a personal victory for them. We hope that this day also symbolized the beginning of breaking long-term prejudice in the society against current prisoners and ex-offenders. There was also one international relay team made up of Singapore Prison Service representatives – Singapore is the birth place of the Yellow Ribbon Run. The relay teams set off the Old Town Square at 9 a.m. and the first of them finished in time of 3:34:04 on 100th position out of the total number of 570 runners. A representative of Kostelecke uzeniny company, which employs sentenced women prisoners from Světlá nad Sázavou Prison, was a member of this team. The second best relay team, with Mr. Pavel Horak from the Prison Service Headquarters, finished on 145th place. And the relay team which included a current female prisoner – Sandra – finished the Yellow Ribbon Run as the third best on 167th position and thus became the best relay team with a runner-prisoner. There were around 5,000 yellow ribbons, symbols of the event, handed out during the day. Not only organizers and runners, but also spectators and other people supporting the idea of reintegration pinned up the yellow ribbon on their clothes. Among these supporters was also Deputy Minister of Justice Mr. Vladimir Zimmel. We thank the organizers of the Volkswagen Prague Marathon for allowing the Yellow Ribbon Run being a part of such a great event. We thank Prison Kurim and its director Ms. Zuzana Kalivodova, and Prison Vinarice, namely its educator Mr. Josef Hruby, for joining the organizing team of the first Yellow Ribbon Run in the Czech Republic. We thank all the runners and companies for the great performance. We thank co-organizers of the RunCzech Business Leaders Forum and the Rubikon Centre without whom the Yellow Ribbon Run could not have been realized. Last but not least, we also want to thank all the fans for supporting us. See you next year at “Escape prejudice”!