Color Run set for Saturday

The sixth annual “Do Better. Be Better 5K Color Run” will be taking place this Saturday, April 20. Inspired by the personal story of physical education teacher Jamie Smith, the event will raise funds to support the cause of the foundation, Do Better. Be Better. 

On Oct. 25, 2013, Smith suffered a stroke when she was 15 weeks pregnant to her fourth daughter. This unexpected occurrence hit once again on Feb. 15, 2016, which later led to a Pontine brain surgery on March 4, 2016.

As a result of her recovery, this incident resulted with Smith and her family founding the organization, Do Better. Be Better. to aid families suffering from medical emergencies, alongside providing a $1,000 scholarship to an award-winning senior from Dunkerton and Cedar Falls each year.

“Do Better. Be Better. became my personal motto during recovery of my first stroke. I often used it in my Facebook posts as I expressed my newfound perspective on life and the meaning behind the saying really caught on within the community, so it was a no brainer to use it as the name of my non profit organization and scholarship program,” Smith said.

So far the event has helped fund 10 scholarships to date, and will continue for more. Dunkerton and Cedar Falls take turns in hosting the event each year. This year, Cedar Falls is the host. Under the supervision of school counselor Erin Gardner, the student senate has been working on the organization of this event for a long time. 

It took a long time to organize. The student officers at Cedar Falls went from walking door to door to find sponsors, to hanging posters around town.

“As the student senate supervisor, Mrs. Gardener was such a huge help. She did a ton of behind the scenes work to make sure we were on the right track. We had to go around and ask people if they were willing to donate money for the event; then, we had to design the shirts, figuring out the colors, how much we needed of which color, and the general planning of the event took a lot of time as well,”  said Student Senate Secretary junior Rachel Brokenshire.

The planning of the event had some challenges, especially when parking problems occured to the organizers of the event. Everything was going very well, until they realized the place the event would be held at wouldn’t have enough parking spots for the participants. 

“Something we didn’t think of, was parking. When you think about it, parking doesn’t really come to mind considering that it is a 5K run. When it’s a run/walk, how people are going to get there usually doesn’t seem to be the first thing that comes to mind. So, we had to shift over to a different parking lot because we didn’t have enough parking spots for everyone,” Brokenshire said. 

As a result of all of the team effort, the Do Better. Be Better. Run has brought a lot of success in the past, and considering the registration of already more than a hundred people, the anticipations are high for this year’s event as well.

“In the past years was fantastic. It is a super fun, laid back event, and once people experience it, they make sure to do it each year,” Smith said. 

The Do Better. Be Better. 5K Color Run will be held at the Prairie Lakes Trails at 9 a.m, Saturday morning. With the inclusion of a T-shirt which will turn into a color sharade by the end of the event, registration will start at 8 a.m, of which the tickets will cost $30. The event will replace three physical education make-ups for interested students.