by Dennis Dalman
news@thenewsleaders.com
A wild swirl of colors will dazzle participants and onlookers at the first “Color 1k/5k Walk-Run” at Celebration Lutheran Church in Sartell Sunday, May 20.
The walkers and runners will be splashed and drenched in colors.
All are welcome to sign up for the event, which is a fundraiser for a mission trip to Milwaukee, Wis., by students. Organizers are urging people to sign up to participate as soon as possible so they can get a firm idea of how many will do the walk or run. To register, go to celebrationlutheranchurch.com or to the Facebook website of Celebration Lutheran Church.
The Color Walk-Run will begin at 12:15 p.m. and end about 1:30 p.m., followed by an outdoor concert with music by the band Radio Nation. If rain should start, the concert will be moved indoors.
Aaron Dowzak is Celebration’s middle-school youth and family director. He explained what will happen at the unusual walk-run. Along the walk-run trail will be five stations where participants will pause as others toss non-toxic colored powder over them. By the time they reach the finish line, all runners and walkers will be covered from head to toe with lively swirls. The colorful fun will encapsulate the rainbow logo for the event and its slogan: “Time to Sweat Rainbows.”
“I’m super-excited to host the first-ever 1k-5k Color Run,” Dowzak said. “We’re praying for good weather and great success.”
After people register for the event, they will be asked to pick up their event packets at Celebration from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Saturday, May 19, the evening before the event. The packets will contain T-shirts with the Color Run logo and slogan, sunglasses, packets of colored powder and information about the event.
The Color Walk-Run is not a timed competitive race, Dowzak noted. The 1k is for younger children, although anyone can choose to do it, including people who are physically challenged or elderly people. Likewise, anyone can do the 5k challenge.
At the end of the walk-run, participants will gather as a group to erupt into celebratory cheers.
Mission trip
Dowzak and his wife, Emily, will be two of seven adults who will accompany 29 middle-school students, grades six to eight, to the center of Milwaukee. There they will spend the better part of a week with elderly residents, helping them do a wide range of tasks, such as yard cleanup or painting. They will also spend time with the young children of Milwaukee’s inner city. The mission trip is scheduled for June 24-29. Participants will drive there from Sartell in 12-passenger vans.
Celebration Lutheran Church is well known for its many mission trips by middle-school and high-school students. Dowzak, thus far, has been an adult member of more than a dozen missions by middle-school students. Among the cities they’d helped in are Cortez, Colorado; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Savannah, Georgia; Louisville, Kentucky; Green Bay, Wisconsin; and Rapid City, South Dakota.
contributed graphic
This T-shirt design and slogan for the Color 1k/5k walk-run was created by Emily Dowzak, the wife of Aaron Dowzak, the event’s host who is director of middle-school students and families for Celebration Lutheran Church. The Dowzaks are two of the adults who will accompany middle-school students on a mission trip to Milwaukee, Wis. The walk-run is a fundraiser for that trip.
Author: Dennis Dalman
Dalman was born and raised in South St. Cloud, graduated from St. Cloud Tech High School, then graduated from St. Cloud State University with a degree in English (emphasis on American and British literature) and mass communications (emphasis on print journalism). He studied in London, England for a year (1980-81) where he concentrated on British literature, political science, the history of Great Britain and wrote a book-length study of the British writer V.S. Naipaul. Dalman has been a reporter and weekly columnist for more than 30 years and worked for 16 of those years for the Alexandria Echo Press.