Last weekend, the Lyndon campus was bustling with numerous events for Homecoming weekend. Students also had the chance to attend H.O.P.E.’s seventh annual Color Run event. The Student Government, Campus Activities Board, and 10% Committee split a $1,000 donation to the nonprofit to pay for 100 students to run. However, despite eight registrations in the weeks leading up to the race and invitations to register the day of, only two students ended up participating.
The Critic went around campus asking students why they didn’t go. Several second-years mentioned they didn’t know the Color Run was happening and said advertising for the event was poor. Elizabeth Sousa, Head Resident of Wheelock and Assistant to the Dean of Students, helped facilitate communications between the Lyndon campus and H.O.P.E.. Two different posters were hung around campus leading up to Homecoming weekend. “It was included in our weekly The Buzz; it was included in the weekly email,” Sousa said. In addition, Peer Leaders were asked to push the event to their first-year students.
Sousa worked very closely with H.O.P.E.’s store manager Haley Caplan, who is also an alumna of Lyndon State College. “It was nice to get an opportunity to collaborate with her in trying to figure out how we were going to get the students involved and get them to know about H.O.P.E..” H.O.P.E. also edited their sign-up form to direct NVU students on how to sign-up for free.
“It definitely needs some refinement,” Sousa admitted. She mentioned that not all students can scan QR codes on posters or in emails, and that might have deterred some involvement. Furthermore, not all students check their emails or read them all the way through.
Another reason for the low turnout was that Lyndon was celebrating Homecoming weekend. “People were with their parents and their families, so they may not necessarily have wanted to go into town,” Sousa said. First-year student Ryder Klager confirmed these thoughts. He told The Critic that he wanted to go to the Color Run, but his visiting parents didn’t.
But even for students who may not have had family or friends visiting, there was still a lot going on. Men’s and women’s soccer players were preparing for varsity contests against SUNY-Canton at 11:00 am and 1:30 pm, respectively. Athletes on the women’s tennis team were in Maine all weekend. In addition, many Visual Arts students were in Ottawa, Canada for an animation festival. September 24th was also the day of Burke’s annual Fall Festival and parade, which several students also attended.
But despite the low turnout, second-year Carson Asava and graduate student Jack Chase still had a great time at the Color Run.
Asava said he signed up just to have fun. “I got to meet a bunch of other people. I got to dance. I got to be splattered with color. It was a great time.” Asava ended up in fourth place. “As a student, it was definitely worth my time,” he told The Critic.
Chase was also looking for something to do that weekend. He said he was looking through the list of Homecoming activities when he stumbled across the Color Run. “I had never done a 5k before,” he said. “I’m not a runner, but I am a ‘yes’ person.” This was the longest Chase has ever run without taking a break. “What kept me going was the fact that people were spraying me with colors and I was surrounded by others.” But, he admitted sometimes feeling like he wasn’t fitting in with the crowd, especially with the lack of other NVU students. In the future, Chase said he’ll bring friends to the event because he’s “absolutely” going to run again.
Sousa even ran the Color Run herself. She started running when COVID first hit as an outlet from being stuck inside. Her goal was to run the Hartford 5k her first year and work her way up to the half-marathon. “These small races leading up to the half marathons are important in the training process,” Sousa said. She’s currently training for her third Hartford Half Marathon, though it will be her first time attending in person. She said the Color Run was a good opportunity to gauge where she’s at in her training process “in a fun way.”
Sousa was an upperclassman at Lyndon when the Color Run first got started but says she was extremely introverted at the time and never ran, which was one of her biggest regrets. She shared that she regrets not participating in the Color Run when she was a student at Lyndon. “I remember distinctly seeing photos being posted from the Color Run afterward. And I remember sitting there being like ‘Wow. It looks like everybody had such a blast.’”
Over 100 Lyndon State College students would attend the Color Run when it first started. It used to be held in the spring, and the cold did turn some heads, but Sousa said it was overall a lot more popular. “It was an opportunity for students to come together.”
Asava, Chase, and Sousa all hope more students get involved in future Color Run events. In light of her reflection, Sousa hopes more students will participate in the Color Run in the future.
Feature Photo by Alexandra Huff || NVU-Lyndon alumnae Elizabeth Sousa and Haley Caplan register runners for H.O.P.E.’s 7th annual Color Run.