ESTEVAN - The Estevan Police Association and volunteers made sure there was no colourless spot on any participants of the Max-Fun Colour 5K Run/Walk Sunday morning.
The entertaining community activity took place at Woodlawn Regional Park, with start and finish points at the Fresh Air Fitness grounds.
Sgt. Kevin Reed, who is the president of the EPA, welcomed the participants, noting that the main point of this not-timed event was to have fun.
Over 70 people registered for the event. Before heading out, all runners and walkers were invited for a fun, quick warm-up at the soccer field, which wrapped up with a first colour blast. The route took participants to the dog park, through Woodlawn's trails and back to Fresh Air Fitness, where there was cold water and freshly-made hotdogs waiting for them.
Volunteers sprayed the runners and walkers with dyes at the stations along the route, so that they were all covered with colours by the time they made it to the finish line.
Reed said they were excited about how the day turned out.
"I'm pretty excited about today, we had more registrations than last time. And then we had some more people show up. And each time we host it, we'll learn a little bit more," said Reed.
The EPA hosted the first annual Max-Fun Colour Run in 2019, and at that time, the start/finish point was at the dog park. Reed noted that the Fresh Air Fitness area was more convenient for the event with more facilities like bathrooms and a sound system available.
The event was also a fundraiser, and the EPA has yet to decide on the beneficiary. However, they have a few causes they support on a regular basis.
"We do some annual things every year with some of our fundraising money. So we give a $500 bursary to one of the students at the Comp. that's going into social justice. We've done that for decades, every year," Reed said. "The last three years, we've donated money to facilitate the youth curling league at the curling rink, and we continue doing that. And then when people send a request to us, we present it to our association, and there's a vote and then we hand the money out that way."
Last time the EPA gave all the money to the South East Saskatchewan Search and Rescue (SESKSAR).
A nicely organized and smoothly-run fun half-day event took about half a year and quite a few people to put together, Reed said.
"On the committee, there were probably 10 of us, police officers. And then, of course, we all drag our families in to help and assist. So today there are probably 25-30 volunteers over and above from the police service. And then there are nine or 10 Kingston Midstream volunteers doing one of the colour stations. And then there were a couple other colour stations that people came in and volunteered to man. And we had one student from the Comp. put their volunteer hours down too," Reed said.
He added that when they started the event, the plan was to run it annually to add an organized run for the community between the Coal Country Run in May and Run the Course in October, both organized by Fresh Air Fitness. The pandemic nixed those plans, but now the EPA hopes to get back on track and keep bringing the activity back.
"It's an opportunity for us as members to get out in the community. A lot of us are physically active anyway. And this is a way for us to actually be out with the other physically-active people in the community," Reed explained.
"And it's a walk or run thing, so it's a way to get people that maybe are a bit timid out. They can start with a colour walk/run. It's a little more fun than timed events so they can come and do the 5K, experience that and then maybe they'll do the full Coal Country Run in a timed event or go around the province and do some that way."
Reed also thanked Peggy Rohatyn and Debby Knight with Fresh Air Fitness for their assistance, advice and volunteering, as well as Kingston Midstream for their volunteers and support, and other sponsors that made the event possible.
