YMCA’s Color Burst 5K set for Saturday

April 28, 2016 at 5:15 a.m. | Updated January 1, 2021 at 12:00 a.m.

Officials at the YMCA of Callaway County are preparing for their Saturday fundraiser, Color Burst 5K and Healthy Kids Day. They include (from left) Melissa Siegel, membership director; Talisha Washington, program director; Sara McDaniel, CEO; and Beth Oseroff, marketing director; and their young friends Isabella Adams and Drew Lowe.
Officials at the YMCA of Callaway County are preparing for their Saturday fundraiser, Color Burst 5K and Healthy Kids Day. They include (from left) Melissa Siegel, membership director; Talisha Washington, program director; Sara McDaniel, CEO; and Beth Oseroff, marketing director; and their young friends Isabella Adams and Drew Lowe.

The chance to charge through multi-colored plumes of pixie dust was too much for 85 runners and walkers to resist last year — and on Saturday, they get to do it all over again.

photo

Petr David Josek

AP

Volunteers carry candles in front of the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, Poland, Sunday, April 11, 2010, after Polish President Lech Kaczynski died in a plane crash. Kaczynski, his wife and some of the country's highest military and civilian leaders died on Saturday April, 10, 2010, when the presidential plane crashed as it came in for a landing in thick fog in western Russia, killing 96.

The Color Burst 5K and Healthy Kids Day is planned at the YMCA of Callaway County on Saturday morning. Dozens of plastic packets of colored dust — comprised of dyed corn starch — wait in boxes for their moment to shine at the starting line.

“We had a big turnout last year,” said Sara McDaniel, chief executive officer of the YMCA at 1715 Wood St. in Fulton. “Eighty-five people ran last year.”

Bursts of color from the packets will continue to be thrown from four stations, she added.

“So as people are running by, people are throwing color on them,” McDaniel said. “We encourage everyone to wear white shirts (that will show the colored dust).”

This will be the second year for the event, which will start (rain or shine) at the YMCA and travel down and around Veterans Park and back north. The day will start with a warmup at 8 a.m., said Beth Oseroff, YMCA marketing director.

“We’ll have a DJ and dancing at the start line,” she said. “It will be an impromptu dance session to get your muscles warm.”

The 5K will start at 8:30 a.m., and costs $20 for YMCA members and $25 for others. A Youth Mile run will start at 9:30 a.m. and the cost is $8. The first 140 participants will each receive a T-shirt and sunglasses, “and everyone gets to have fun,” Oseroff said.

photo

Rod Aydelotte

AP/Waco Tribune Herald

Country singer Willie Nelson, right, walks to a courtroom for the shooting trial of Billy Joe Shaver Friday April 9, 2010 in Waco Texas. Shaver, 70, is charged with shooting Billy Bryant Coker outside Papa Joe's Texas Saloon in Lorena, Texas on April 1, 2007. Standing next to Nelson is Johnnie Dodd, left.

All other activities are free, and include Healthy Kids Day activities from 9:30 a.m.-noon inside the YMCA facility.

“Healthy Kids Day is done on April 30th by YMCAs across the nation,” Oseroff added.

The activities include spinal screenings for children by Koelling Family Chiropractic. Callaway Kids Bank’s CB Squirrel will visit, and Westminster College students, majoring in education, also will conduct children’s games.

“Callaway County Humane Society will be bringing at least one dog,” Oseroff added.

There also will be a furry representative from Miller Creek Ranch’s petting zoo, face painting, a bounce house and snacks.

“All the money goes to outreach, like scholarships to families who otherwise couldn’t afford to be members of the Y,” Oseroff said.

The 5K is not a race, McDaniel stressed. “I would encourage all ability levels to come,” she said. “It’s a fun event. We’ll have lots of walkers, so come out and get some color.”