On April 30, a warm sunny Sunday morning, over 220 runners lined up to participate in UPB’s fourth annual Color the Rock 5k Color Run event.
This year’s event featured a “Throughout the Decades” theme, where participants were encouraged to dress up from the different decades, anywhere from the 60s to today, and throwback music was played for participants as they ran.
The event started at 9 a.m. with a warm up and a performance from the SRU dance team. Just before 10 a.m., participants and volunteers gathered in the ARC parking lot where a storm of green, blue, pink and purple erupted into the air. At about 10 a.m. the first heat of runners were off.
Every year UPB tries to add something new to the run, and this year a theme was added to bring something new and something fun to the event, UPB director of community service and senior business marketing major Samantha Anderson said.
Each station throughout the run was given a decade, and a color go to along with it, as well as accompanying music that fit with each decade. The first station of the run was the 60s, which had the color yellow and played music from the 60s such as the Beatles. The final station of the run was the 2000s, which had the color purple and played hits from the early 2000s to today.
The color run benefits a UPB scholarship, which will be awarded in honor of former associate and dance professor at SRU, Thom Cobb, who passed away last year.
“Cobb was a dedicated philanthropist, always finding ways to give back to this university,” Anderson said. “After he passed away last year, we thought this would be a special way to respect, honor and remember him.”
“This is my last color run; I’ve been a part of it since the event started four years ago,” president of UPB Brandon Quinn said. “I’m very happy with the progress the event has taken in the last four years.”
“It’s really exciting to see the event come together, and see it all happen,” Richelle Fuller, vice president of programming for ARHS, said. This was the second time of the event’s four years that ARHS helped sponsor the run.
ARHS President Quin McLaughlin agreed.
“It was really great to see so many people come out to support a great cause. So much hard work goes into making this go off without a hitch, and I’m honored to get to work so closely with these phenomenal leaders,” McLaughlin said. “Plus throwing color at my friends is pretty fun.”
Junior history major Justin Walko said he had a blast attending his first color run event.
“It’s always a nice event to see people come out and participate in, and it’s always fun to see smiling faces covered in a multitude of colors,” Quinn said.
“I’m excited to be able to get involved with the color run, I think it’s going to be a lot of fun,” sophomore actuarial science and UPB volunteer Ashley Annarelli said. “Community Service does the color run, and I thought it would be cool to help out and volunteer.”
Junior art major Amanda Lyon had a lot of fun running in the event for the third time.
“I have come back each year for the color and the running. I love to run and being an art major, I love color too, so this is the perfect event,” Lyon said.
“I’m just honored to have been part of this organization since the start of this color run,” Quinn said. “I know the board next year will do great things and I can’t wait to see what they do.”
Look out for the color run and other UPB events on Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter @SRUPB.
