Abby Palin and Lucy Falso
Staff Writers
Jamesville- DeWitt High School hosted a Red Ram Color Run to support the sophomore class and the Lady Rams Lacrosse team’s trip to Boston. The run took place at the high school on Sunday, Oct. 16 at 9 a.m. and was open to the community. The tickets for students costed $20 and adults had to pay $35 to participate in the 5k run/3k walk.
Amy Burns, the mom of a girl’s lacrosse team member, brought the idea to the team first. “I just thought it was something new and different for the school and the community,” Mrs. Burns said, “and there’s a lot of runs, but not a lot of color runs, especially around here.”
Mrs. Burns asked permission from Athletic Director John Goodson and the school board to host the run. Shortly after, the sophomore class joined in with the lacrosse team to make the run a success. The idea of the color run was inspired after the city of Syracuse had their own color run for the community and many girls on the lacrosse team agreed that it would be a fun way to raise money. The Leone Timing Company was at the race to help handle registrations before the race began and record the times of the finishers.
The Varsity Girl’s Lacrosse team have to raise $15,000 for their trip to Boston over April break. Burns, along with some of her teammates, including junior Katie Lutz, thought that the event would be a big success because of the awareness they brought to the run. They put up flyers, sold t-shirts and spread the word of the event through twitter and by word-of-mouth.
On the other hand, senior girl’s lacrosse captain Bess Murad was a little anxious about the number of people that would show up. “We are a little nervous about the turnout because there haven’t been a lot of pre-registrations,” said Murad before the event, “but I know a lot of coaches have talked to their kids and you can register the day of the race.”
Along with the money that went to the Lady Rams Lacrosse team, the sophomore class was also trying to make money for their future events. According to the sophomore class president, Alan Gao, the sophomore class got $5 for every sophomore registration and the Lady Rams Lacrosse team earned the rest of the money from the registrations. According to sophomore class vice president Sophia Vinciguerra, the set up a table for selling snacks and a guessing game to raise more money.
There were food and drinks available to buy, along with extra color packets. In addition, raffle tickets could be purchased for the chance to win various gift cards. The volunteers helped with passing out waters to the runners and sold goods at the race. According to Nancy O’Connor, sophomore class vice president, kids were at the color run throwing the color packets at the runners throughout the race.
Many students, like sophomore Olivia Budelmann, were excited for the color run to show their support for the girl’s lacrosse team and their sophomore class. “I think the turnout will be good as long as enough volunteers go,” Budelmann said. Manish Karr, a junior at J-DHS was also excited to partake in the color run. “It’ll be a cool experience. I don’t think we’ve done this at our school before,” Karr said.
Students who attended the color run on Sunday felt that there needed to be some improvements made for future years. According to sophomores Lindsay MacLachlan and Courtney Burns, they believed more colors should be thrown at the runners more frequently. “There should be more color stops because there were only two,” said MacLachlan and Burns.
However many students who showed their school spirit by going to the event on Sunday enjoyed participating in the color run. “It was fun, because there were a lot of people there and everyone was running,” said sophomore Eden Shiomos.
