The public is invited to participate in the Fifth Annual ACT Scholarship Fund 5K Road Race, which will be held, rain or shine, at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2008, along residential streets in Willimantic. All proceeds from the race will benefit students who attend ACT, the arts magnet high school housed in EASTCONN’s Capitol Theater, 896 Main Street.

The fairly flat and easy 5K course is sanctioned and certified by the U.S.A. Track and Field Association (USATF), according to race founder and organizer Tracy Goodell-Pelletier, dean of students at ACT. Race participants are welcome to walk or run.

The 5K route (3.1 miles) will take runners from the starting point at ACT, along Main Street to Bridge Street, to Pleasant Street, to the Lebanon town line, where runners turn around, then take Pleasant Street to Route 32, turn right on Lebanon Avenue, right on Hayden, right on Route 289, then run the homestretch to Riverside Drive and end at the back door of ACT. All participants are invited to enjoy post-race refreshments at the finish line.

The registration fee is $18 until October 13. After that, the fee is $20. Participants may register the day of the race at ACT between 8 a.m. and 9:45 a.m. All registration fees go directly to the ACT Scholarship Fund. To obtain a race application, call Goodell-Pelletier at 860-465-5636, ext. 2110, or e-mail her at act5krun@yahoo.com.

ACT (Arts at the Capitol Theater) offers both part-day and full-day arts magnet high school programs, which concentrate on disciplines like acting, singing, dance, theater production, stage design, audio/video production, creative writing and more.

Currently, 65 ninth- and tenth-grade students attend full-day ACT, while 22 eleventh- & twelfth-grade students attend part-day ACT; altogether, the students represent 18 area towns or high schools. Annual tuition for each ACT part-day student is $3,000 and while some school districts help defray tuition costs for the part-day program, others do not. As a result, many students are unable to attend part-day ACT because of financial concerns.

Proceeds from the ACT 5K Road Race will first benefit the scholarship fund for part-day ACT students who demonstrate financial need. Later, as ACT graduates its first full-day-program class, the scholarship fund will benefit full-day students who plan to continue studying the arts.

Currently, ACT’s full-day academic and arts program is limited to ninth- and tenth-graders; tuition for those students is paid by hometown school districts.