DARTMOUTH, Mass. -- For a fifth consecutive year, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Athletic Department will team up with The Southeastern Massachusetts Shrine Club and Shriners Hospital for Children and co-sponsor the 35th annual UMass Dartmouth Cross Country Invitational. The invitational will be held on the UMass Dartmouth campus, Saturday, Sept. 15, 2007 beginning at 10:30 am.

The longest running cross country race of its kind in New England, the UMass Dartmouth Invitational brings together almost 1,000 of the top NCAA Division III male and female cross country runners and teams from throughout New England for a day of athletic competition on the UMass Dartmouth campus. A series of four individual cross-country races will be staged on the UMass Dartmouth cross country course, beginning with the women's sub-varsity race at 10:30 am, followed by the women's varsity race at 11:15 am. The men's varsity race is schedule to go off at 12 noon with the final race of the day, the men's sub-varsity race to start at 12:45 pm. An awards ceremony will cap the day's events at 2 pm inside the Tripp Athletic Center.

All of the day's activities are an opportunity for the Shrine Club of Southeastern Massachusetts to raise public awareness for its work as "the world's greatest philanthropy". With 500,000 Shrine members in North America, the Shriners Hospitals are located throughout the country and in Canada and Mexico, providing treatment, research and education along with free care and services for children under age 18. The Shriners have two hospitals in Massachusetts, including the Shriners Burns Hospital in Boston and the Shriners Hospital for Children in Springfield, providing orthopedic and spinal care and research.