More than 350 students and community members participated in Holi Run.
Things were a little … colorful at Towson University’s first-ever annual Holi Run earlier this week. The unique event combined elements of Holi—the Indian Festival of Colors to celebrate the coming of spring—with a fun, mile-and-a-half “color run” across campus.
White t-shirts were provided to all participants, who had six different colors of powder thrown on and at them over the course of the run.
“At the end of the race everyone is covered from head to toe in six different colors,” Priya Shahani, president of the South Asian Student Association (SASA), told the Towerlight. “This way you cannot tell who is who and everyone becomes equal as they all look the same.”
A partnership between SASA, Towson’s University Residence Government (URG), Theta Chi Fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity, Zeta Tau Alpha Sorority and Phi Mu, the event attracted more than 350 student and community runners.
The event culminated in the runners gathering in a circle to throw colored powder in the air … and each other.
“It was my brain child that I came up with after watching Holi videos excessively last spring,” Justin Schwendeman, a student, explained to the Baltimore Sun.
“I then thought of the Color Run and how Baltimore had never done one. I talked with some friends and we decided to put it on. URG contacted different organizations and we all decided to work together on the event.”
“The powder is all natural and we bought it in bulk from Amazon.com. We had 320 pounds for the event and it was more than enough.”
The Holi Run was more than just fun and games. Each participant’s entry fee was donated to their choice of the following charities: Breast Cancer Awareness, Children’s Miracle Network and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. In the end, nearly $1,000 was distributed among the three charities.
