The annual Color Run was held on Saturday April 8th with all ages of participants running through blasts of colored powder as they raced toward the finish line. Student Council Pride Committee chairman McKinley Bank, junior, was charged with the massive undertaking of planning the event.
“The planning process took over two months, and was a team effort. Mrs. Jess and I emailed all the schools in BISD, giving them all the information for the race,” Blank said. “We then contacted local businesses to contribute to our sponsor bags.”
Local school as well as administration for BISD helped spread the word about the vent sharing on their social media and posting fliers to help get participation levels up. While there were lots of participants, Blank would like to see the numbers grow even more.
“The color run was great. The only thing I would change is spreading the word out about our race to more people,” Blank said. “Also, I think we should plan on ordering bananas earlier since they were still green.”
The number of participants has grown each year as word gets out that the event is happening and how fun it is. Student Council foots the bill for the planning of the event and was excited to see that the profits this year covered those expenses and more.
“We had a great turnout this year. It was great to see the community come out to support our non-profit,” Blank said. “The outcome was amazing, we ended up raising more money than last year.”
Before the actual race younger kids were given the opportunity to run a shorter trek and have fun getting hit with the clouds of color. After the kids race, adults including students, teachers, and community members took off in a race to the finish. Staff members Mrs. Tiffany Mixon and Mrs. Marilynn Broaddus stuck together during the race.
“I chose Mrs. Broaddus to run with because we are friends, I knew we would be able to be there and support each other,” Mrs. Mixon said. “My favorite part of the color run was just being out there doing it and seeing all the kids having fun.”
While several families participated together in the race, for some the family affair was split between work and play. Mrs. Mixon’s daughter, Emily, is a part of Student Council and was at the event working.
“My daughter participated in throwing the color so I love that she is involved in Student Council, I think it’s a great opportunity for her,” Mixon said.
As a cross country and track runner sophomore Brayden Smith chose to participate in the color run and ended up in first place. After the race he pushed his limits and still kept running back and forth as if the race was not hard enough.
“It felt good to have placed first because it was pretty cool and I worked really hard and my time for the race was 18:02,” Smith said “I decided to do the color run because I saw there were a bunch of posters and decided to jump in for the fun of it.”
As if being in the lead wasn’t motivation enough, Smith enjoyed the motivation and fun of the colors. In the end, as he approached the finish line, there was no banner to run through. His finish was so quick, and unexpected, race staff were not yet prepared for a winner to cross the line. Student Council members scrambled to get there to give him the big finish he deserved.
“The color is what motivated me to win because I wanted to run through the colors as fast as I could,” Smith said.
