The third-annual Colors of Hope 5K run will be held at 9 a.m. Sept. 13, at 1638 Blaine St., to raise money for Latah and Whitman County residents undergoing cancer treatment.
University of Idaho students and Moscow community members splash color cornstarch on each other at last year’s Colors of Hope 5k run. All proceeds go to the Light a Candle program to support local cancer patients.
“(The run) runs down the Latah Trail to the Jeff Martin Pavilion and back,” said Eric Hollenbeck, a Light a Candle board member. “There will be six color stations along the way where runners will get doused with a non-toxic, colored corn starch.”
He said each color station represents different cancer awareness campaigns. For example pink represents breast cancer and purple represents overall cancer awareness.
The Light a Candle program through Gritman Medical Center manages the run.
“I think it’s really neat that we do the run at the Jeff Martin Pavilion because it’s named after our (former) CEO, Jeff Martin,” said co-founder of the Light a Candle program, Debi Dockins. “The Light a Candle name came from a book that he gave us that talked about it’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. We lost him four years ago to a car accident, so this program is a cool way to honor him and keep his memory alive.”
The Light a Candle program started three years ago as collaboration between Gritman and family members who had either died of cancer or were in cancer treatment, she said.
“We really wanted to find a way to ease some of the pressure that comes with cancer,” Dockins said. “While we can’t pay for their treatment, the thousands and thousands of dollars that it takes to battle cancer, we can offer massages, grocery cards, gas vouchers — basically whatever their need is.”
Instead of hiring a company to put on the color run, Gritman and the Light a Candle program put on the entire event independently, meaning 100 percent of the profits go back into the fight against cancer, she said.
“No money that we raise at this point, three years running, not one dime has gone into running the program,” she said.
The money raised for the Light a Candle program goes toward assisting the 81 cancer patients in the Latah and Whitman Counties, as well as those in Colfax, Dockins said.
“We want to reach out to both counties with our fundraising and with our support of cancer patients, knowing that a lot of them come in to both areas for their day-to-day business,” she said.
Hollenbeck said at the end of the run, when everyone has crossed the finish line, the left over barrels of color will be brought back to the start and finish lines, where participants can partake in a color war — splashing each other with color.
The Light a Candle program also partners with other organizations like Chicks and Chaps, the University of Idaho, UI Soccer, UI Volleyball, Hoops for Hope and Dig for a Cure, which all support the Colors of Hope 5k, she said.
Registration can be found on gritman.org by clicking on the events tab and then on the link to the Colors of Hope 5K. The cost to register is $30 and participants receive a free t-shirt.
Hollenbeck said anyone is welcome to register, not just runners — children, families, students, survivors and anyone else wanting to support the cause.
Emily Aizawa can be reached at [email protected]