LZHS’s first color run will be kicking off homecoming week this year on October 2, and the whole community is invited.

The School District 95 Educational Foundation has hosted a community 5K walk/run every April for the past six years, but this year will be different. It will be held on campus, and it will hopefully made “more popular, especially with the students,” according to Christopher Bennett, student council sponsor.

“We are going to have a DJ out there, as people arrive we are going to play music for a while, and then when the actual run starts we are going to send people out in groups so you can run with your friends,” Bennett said.

After speaking with students and discussing the idea, the administration and Nancy Coleman, the Executive Director of the School District 95 Educational Foundation, believe that starting with the Bears on a Color Run is the best first step to kick off homecoming week and also support the nonprofit organization.

“The proceeds go to enrich, enhance, and supplement student learning,” Coleman said. “We do this through numerous projects. Last year the last project we announced in May was the funding of the Lake Zurich High School Greenhouse. It is being put in place by late fall. We also do teacher innovation grants [and] applied technology projects. We do those in all age schools.”

Starting at the PAC, the run will be about a mile and participants may chose to walk or run, but all will be sprayed with colors if they sign up to join the run by September 19.    

“At various points along the route […] goes up towards May Whitney, back towards [the high school], around the track, around the football stadium not on the track, and then around the back of the PAC. At various stations we’ll have powder cannons,” Bennett said. “You run by and they shoot you with a cannon. There’s a different color at each stop and it’s a big powder cannon where it splashes the [dye] all over.”

In order to have enough dye to go all over people, the foundation had to wait a few years before it was cheap enough to make the run affordable.

“We’re including a t-shirt, glasses, and the powder, and we’re charging 25 dollars per registration, whereas we were charging 30 for the 5K,” Coleman said. “We just thought that was too high for students possibly to be able to afford. We wanted it to be affordable so we set the registration fee at $25,”

At a “great price and a steal” this year’s color run “could be huge,” according to Bennett.

All are welcome to join the Bears on a color run, not just students.

“Hopefully we get a nice, big turnout and everybody can have fun,” Bennett said. “It’ll be a nice kickoff to homecoming week.”