Second-grader Aubrey Hurst was hoping to get purple chalk all over her.

“It’s the best color, the way it looks and how it stays on you,” she said.

Her mother, Myndi, didn’t blink. 

She supported her daughter getting coated in chalk; Aubrey was getting ready for Aspen Elementary’s color run fundraiser.

“I have two kids running along with one of their friends,” Hurst said. “This was such an awesome fundraiser last year. The teachers sprayed chalk on the kids as they ran by on the field and the kids like the incentives of getting to slime their principal. It’s just well-organized and a fun way to raise money for field trips, teacher appreciation and everything they do here at school.”

Aspen PTA President Natalie Lund said that the color run was designed as a community event to offer students a chance to have fun with other kids outside of school hours and there are food trucks, so families could get dinner. Together, families and friends could participate in the color run and opt to get as much or as little chalk as they wanted.

“We were a new school last year and I thought this would be a fun way to get the whole community together,” she said. “It was something fun for everybody and it gave everybody a chance to get to know each other. The kids, everyone seemed to love it so we’re doing it again this year.”

Last year, the color run brought in $10,000. This year, the school community exceeded the goal of $15,000 by more than $2,000. Funds will be used for Reflections, Red Ribbon Week and other typical PTA-sponsored activities, Lund said.

“The more money we have, the more we can add fun things here at the school,” she said.

Fifth-grade teacher Mikayla Miller said that the fun run was organized a little differently, so everything was flowing better.

“I love that this brings together our community – the PTA, the parents, the students; it’s just perfect,” she said about the hundreds of families who came to support the school. 

Miller, who with other teachers were spraying chalk on the runners, was preparing herself to have a pie thrown in her face.

“My class raised enough money to pie me,” she said, adding that other incentives included that evening’s sliming the principal, Suzie Williams, for raising $10,000; and having a foam party, when they reach $15,000.

“It’s all fun and it’s for a good cause,” she said.

Student Santi Zizumbo said parents’ reactions after they run is the best part.

“The parents are so surprised at how much chalk we have on us, but they can’t be mad because we’re helping the school,” Santi said. “I love just getting really messy and being able to be free, running around.”

Second-grader Indie Arnell was ready. Indie wore a “boring white shirt. I’m hoping to have it really dyed with colors – blue, pink and purple. Purple is the best color.”

Family and friends could pay $5 to join in the run and chalk packets were being sold for $20, said parent volunteer Mallory Hill.

“The kids like to have the chalk to throw it up in the air and at each other,” she said. “I had two of my kids run last year and they were just covered in chalk. I just threw everything they wore in the washing machine and washed their clothes five times. The blue is the hardest to come out, and it still didn’t come all the way out. They wear those clothes for yardwork and bedtime now.”

Hill wasn’t upset, but instead, she planned to join the fun this year.

“The kids had so much fun last year, our whole family all decided to join in this year,” she said. λ