The forecast predicted low temperatures and cloudy skies: a day after it snowed and two days before the first day of Spring. A bright, warm Color Run was looking unlikely, and students were beginning to worry.
“Will the Color Run be canceled?”
It was to be the first of its kind, at Pagosa Peak Open School: an idea hatched by the school’s Creative Arts Advisor Rain March.
“A celebration of the season and of color!” she proposed.
The morning proved to be cool and cloudy: middle school students filled bottles and buckets with colored cornstarch, as the school filled with students dressed in all white. Balloons and streamers decorated the parking lot, and site manager Jeanelle Wychesit started the music.
Staff, adorned in colorful tutus made by middle school student Sarah, headed to their color stations outside while students gathered inside to hear the ground rules and plan: Run in one direction, follow the arrows, help others, keep running, have fun!
Grateful, happy faces moved outside, where the clouds had broken and blue sky highlighted the day. Students ran for 20 minutes – claiming up to 90 laps – while their teachers ran alongside them, creating colorful streaks on white T-shirts that served as their canvas.
“Even my teeth are orange now,” middle school student Vivian said afterward, “Because for 20 minutes I could not stop smiling!”
Emily Murphy is School Director at Pagosa Peak Open School, the first District-authorized charter school in Archuleta County. The intentionally innovative school serves grades K-8, with plans for a preschool in the near future.