James Joyce Ramble a freedom run
By Ryan J. Halliday Monday, March 27, 2006
DEDHAM -- The 23rd annual James Joyce Ramble, a 10-kilometer road race in honor of the iconic Irish scribe, has been dedicated to kidnapped reporter Jill Carroll.
 Enlivened by a socially conscious sensibility, as well as readings of the high-brow, intellectually demanding works from its titular Irish author, the 6.25-mile road race has always been about more than just running, said Martin Hanley, the managing director of the venerable road race.
"The Ramble has always been more meaningful to us than having just another sports event," Hanley said last week. "We’ve always tried to raise public consciousness for freedom of expression."
Carroll, a University of Massachusetts at Amherst graduate and freelance journalist for the Christian Science Monitor, was abducted Jan. 7 on her way to an interview with a prominent Sunni politician in Iraq. Her fate is still unknown.
Hanley said race organizers, who over the years have donated proceeds to cancer research and high school scholarships, are considering starting a grant to benefit Reporters without Borders, an international non-governmental organization interested in issues relating to freedom of the press.
Since 1989, the Ramble has supported efforts to raise public awareness of human rights violations inflicted on writers, artists and political free thinkers throughout the world.
Race organizers, with help from Amnesty International, dedicate the event to a persecuted writer each year. In the past organizers have petitioned on behalf of such writers as Vaclav Havel, Xu Wenli, Aung San Suu Kyi, Wei Jingsheng, Ismail Besikci, Daw San San New, Ngwang Choephel, and Guatemalan journalists Carlos Rivas, Arnulfo Augustin Guzman, Deccio Serrano, Jose Candido Barrillas, Ana Lucia Ramirez and Nery de la Cruz.
In 2003 the Ramble was dedicated to Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal journalist who was kidnapped and killed while reporting in Pakistan.
All proceeds from the Ramble go to the Claudia Adams-Barr Program at Boston’s Dana Farber Cancer Institute, which supports innovative basic research endeavors. The Ramble has raised more than $250,000 for this program since 1984, said Hanley.
This year’s Ramble starts at 11 a.m. Sunday, April 30, at the Endicott Estate on East Street. Runners can register online at www.ramble.org.
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