District 27 Color run gives approximately 900 children a fun day of physical activity

 

[May 10, 2024]    On Friday afternoon, May 10th, approximately 900 students from the Lincoln elementary District 27 schools participated in the district’s annual color run.

Adams School on Nicholson Road held a smaller scale run with only their students and teachers at the school. The vast majority of the students joined together at Central School. These were students in kindergarten through fifth grade from Central, Northwest, and Washington Monroe Schools.

Principal Chris Allen noted that with teachers and several parents who had come to walk and trot the one-mile course with the kids, there were probably close to if not exceeding 1,000 people who joined in the fun.

The color run began in 2017. Central Principal Kelly Bogdanic explained, “Angie Whiteman (with the LMH Healthy Communities Partnership) and I brainstormed a way to incorporate healthy lifestyles into the school using the CATCH program as our backbone. Our first year the run was only for Central Students but it quickly caught on and the entire District 27 K-5 schools wanted to join in on the fun. It has been one of the highlights of most staff and students' school years.”

This year, the event began with a ribbon cut that was the “starting pistol” for the walk. Principal Bogdanic, Principal Allen from Northwest, and Principal Ginger Chaudion from Washington-Monroe snipped the ribbon with Lincoln City Clerk Peggy Bateman and Fire Chief Ty Johnson joining them behind the ribbon. Lincoln Daily News assisted with the cut with Karen Castelein and Chassidy White holding the ribbon for the principals.

To get it started, Principal Allen shouted out to all the children lined up behind the ribbon on the sidewalk. He asked them to start the countdown with six (because there were six grade levels K - 5). When the kids had counted down to one, the principals snipped the ribbon, and the kids were off and running.

Each child and teacher wore a white tee shirt with District 27 printed on the front. While the shirts started the race white, the goal was that by the end of the event, every shirt would hold the brightly colored stains of powdered paint that was tossed on them from one of the five color stations along the route.

In addition to the white tee shirts, each participant wore a nice pair of green sunglasses that had been donated to the event by Lincoln Memorial Hospital.

All in all, it was a fun day and a great way to impress children and parents with the idea that getting exercise is not just healthy, it can also be a lot of fun.

[Nila Smith]