Through determination, motivation and colored powder, ULM raised over $9,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Students and families from all over the area came together to get sweaty and colorful in ULM’s first 5k Color Me Cured race held by Up ‘Til Dawn.
“It was so satisfying to see everyone running around completely rainbowed out,” said Laura Knotts, director of student life and leadership. “I like seeing how excited the students are. And we’re just so excited to get to raise all of this money for St. Jude.”
CAB and SGA gave money to sponsor the color run as an RSO scholarship.
Between the two organizations there was $1500 put forward to fund Color Me Cured.
Senior elementary education major Emily Lovelady got to throw the colored powder as part of the Up ‘Til Dawn executive board.
There were families who ran in the race and would also come join in on the powder throwing.
“It was a great experience and it’s good that we can do something like this on our campus, that we have enough student and community involvement to actually be able to pull this off,” Lovelady said.
CAB members Amanda Hikes and Beth Hughes volunteered to get the chance to chase people around with paint.
Hikes would encourage the runners to get to her checkpoint and then surprise them with her paint bottles.
“I would cheer for them and beckon them to over to the finish line. Then I would get them in their moments of victory,” said Hikes, a freshman biology major. “It was a lot of fun to see their faces. I actually hated throwing paint at the little kids because they were so cute. But now they are cute little rainbows and I’m responsible for that.”
Psychology graduate student Monica Winkler was disappointed when the she lost the chance to run a half marathon a month ago in Dallas.
Then she learned about the color run at ULM. She also wasn’t expecting to hear her name get called for first place in the women’s category.
“I was so excited about my prizes and running with my body all painted,” Winkler said. “That’s actually the reason why I really ran. I was like ‘heck yeah I want a bunch of color on my body.’”
Senior communication major Macky James had two things on his mind – charity and first place. But then he realized he was probably going to end in eighth place, and went in to cross the finish line with his final kicker.
But when he got there he was told to turn around.
“I had run all the way back to the starting line,” James said. “Then I came in 27th place. But I had fun. I loved running for a great cause.”
