Last year, an estimated 400-plust individuals participated in Southeastern Cancer Care’s annual ‘Cures for the Colors Color Run.’ This year’s event will take place at Wayne Community College on Sept. 23. Register by Aug. 31 to be guaranteed a t-shirt. (Southeastern Cancer Care|Courtesy photo)
Participants in Southeastern Cancer Care’s annual ‘Cures for the Colors Color Run’ can choose to be sprayed with color powder by walking or running through color stations set up along the race route. (Southeastern Cancer Care|Courtesy photo)
The 2023 ‘Cures for the Colors Color Run’ will include both a timed and an untimed 5K walk/run, as well as a family-friendly, untimed one-mile Fun Run. (Southeastern Cancer Care|Courtesy photo)
At Southeastern Cancer Care’s ‘Cures for the Colors Color Run,’ walkers and runners can choose to be blasted by color powder along the route by passing through color stations. Those wishing to bypass the color stations are welcome to do so. (Southeastern Cancer Care|Courtesy photo)
Pink powder will fill the air — as will a whole rainbow of colors — on Saturday, Sept. 23 at Wayne Community College during Southeastern Cancer Care’s annual “Cures for the Colors Color Run.”
The event will include a one-mile Fun Run (starting at 8:30 a.m.), a 5K (starting at 9:15 a.m.), and a free Kid’s Zone sponsored by Goldsboro Pediatrics that will cater to kids ages 3 to 15, with an inflatable bounce castle and an inflatable obstacle course.
Cures for the Colors is the events arm of Southeastern Cancer Care, a nonprofit founded in 2011 by doctors at Southeastern Medical Oncology Center (SMOC) to help cancer patients throughout eastern North Carolina with basic essential living expenses. Cures for the Colors takes its name from the various colors used to raise awareness for different types of cancer. The most familiar is pink for breast cancer, but there are many others, including: purple for pancreatic, dark blue for colon, light blue for prostate, emerald green for liver, orange for leukemia, white for lung, and black for skin cancer.
As to why the race is called a “Color Run,” Emma Barnes, Community Development Coordinator for SMOC, describes it this way: “Volunteers throw color powder on participants as they walk or run through various color stations along the route. Each station has a different color powder, so by the end of the route, participants will be covered in all kinds of color.” She goes on to explain that since the color stations do not take up the entire race path, anyone who doesn’t wish to be splashed with color can simply avoid going through them.
Walkers, as well as runners, are welcome at the event. “We usually have a good mix of both walkers and runners on the 5K course and mostly walkers on the Fun Run course,” notes Barnes.
“The Fun Run route is family-friendly and is great for strollers, but anyone can do it,” she continues. “In years past, people of all ages have walked the Fun Run route. Some people use the Fun Run as an opportunity to walk together to honor or remember their loved one who has battled cancer.”
The first “Cures for the Colors Color Run” was held in 2011 and it has taken place annually since then, with a few years off due to Covid-19. The event resumed in 2022, with an estimated 400 or more participants, and $64,000 being raised.
This year’s goal is $80,000. All money raised, after race expenses have been paid, will be used to provide those battling cancer with items like gas cards and grocery cards, and will help with expenses related to utility bills and oncology prescriptions. In addition to individual participation, vendor and sponsorship opportunities are available for businesses.
To register for the Color Run or to get more information, please visit www.southeasterncancercare.org. Anyone registering for either race by Aug. 31 is assured of getting a race t-shirt.
