WATERVILLE VALLEY, New Hampshire ??” It’s one of the most anticipated events of the year at Waterville Valley and one of the most important. The twenty-first annual Jack Williams Race for Wednesday’s Child is slated for Saturday, March 12. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Jack Williams Endowment for Wednesday’s Child.

Since 1981, Jack Williams and his wife Marci have had one mission; to give promise and hope to children in need by placing them in caring and loving adoptive homes. In the early stages, they discovered the main struggle facing many of the child-placing agencies was a lack of funds. The Jack Williams Race at Waterville Valley, developed in 1984, has helped raise crucial dollars to help those institutions and agencies find and place children with special needs in adoptive homes.

Many people in New England are familiar with Jack Williams’ efforts on Boston’s CBS4. A television journalist since 1968, Williams anchors CBS4 News weekdays at noon and 5:30 p.m. He has been recognized by numerous organizations for his reporting skills, commitment to the community and for his work on behalf of his weekly news series “Wednesday’s Child.” Each week, “Wednesday’s Child” features a special needs child who is in search of a permanent home. Over the years the segment has helped more than 490 special needs children find loving homes. Williams is responsible for raising more than $3 million for the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange, a non-profit agency that matches special needs children with adoptive families. In April 2000, Williams created the Jack Williams Endowment for Wednesday’s Child to ensure continued financial support for special needs adoption.

Registration for the 2005 Jack Williams Race will take place on the third floor of the Waterville Valley Base Lodge from 8 to 9:30 a.m. Team and individual pre-registration is available by contacting Ruthie Antonides at 603-236-8311 ext. 3174. All ages and abilities are welcome to participate. Following team photos at 9:30 a.m., the races will take place on the World Cup trail.

An evening reception featuring awards, auctions, videos and a raffle at the Waterville Valley Conference Center is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. The raffle highlight will be a drawing for a new 2005 Volvo XC 90. Tickets for the Volvo drawing are $100 and are available online at www.jackwilliamswednesdayschild.org.

Many gifts and prizes for the event will be provided by the primary sponsors: American Airlines, Volvo, Wendy’s, CBS4 and PaySystems.

For more information, please visit www.waterville.com or www.jackwilliamswednesdayschild.org.