For Esther Nguyen’s senior project she decided she wanted to have a Color Run. The Color Run, also known as the Happiest 5K on the Planet, was founded by Utah native and event producer Travis Snyder in March 2011, in an effort to encourage professionals and novices to run together for fun and to promote healthiness and happiness. Its first event took place in March 2011 in Phoenix, Ariz., with 6,000 participants.
Since that first run in Utah these runs have taken place all over the world.
Nguyen wanted to have the first one in Forks. She named it Color-up-Forks. First she had to raise the money to buy the official colors, which are cornstarch based and non-toxic. She held a bake sale and raised $520 and ordered 20-plus pounds of color.
On Aug. 15 at 9 a.m. her color run got under way. About 70 participants ran a crazy route around town and at each of the four stations on the route they got doused with a different color.
Each participant paid an entry fee and got a T-shirt, run bib, snacks and water. The event was open to all ages.
She would like to thank everyone that participated and special thanks to sponsors Subway, Forks Outfitters, Forks Avenue Real Estate and Lissy Andros at the Forks Chamber of Commerce. Kathy Hjelmeseth and Str8 Jacket T’s provided the T-shirts for the event.
She also would like to thank her mentor Avery Ironhill.
The event raised about $1500 and all proceeds will go to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
The idea of the Color Run is to just have fun and to get moving. It appears to have been a success.
