The Hollister Recreation Department’s multi-year effort to bring a color run to the community has come to fruition with the 5K Wild Color Run on July 28.
“We offer so much youth-organized sports and we just want individual, healthy-living, and family-oriented fun where they can go out there and bring their child in a stroller and run with them,” said Tina Garza, recreation supervisor.
Jennifer Rodriguez, special events coordinator, said Hollister Recreation wants to provide fun opportunities for the community to practice living healthy lifestyles, but if there is a low number of participants, organizing companies won’t continue those events.
“We really need our community to step up at this time and say ‘Hey, we want more of these events here and we want to have a healthy lifestyle,’ and we want to provide opportunities for our community to get outside their house and have fun,” Rodriguez said.
All the proceeds will be used to start funding for Junior Warriors, a youth basketball program, Garza said. It would be similar to the free Junior Giants youth baseball program, but would be offered at an affordable cost to the community.
“They need to know that all their money is going directly back into recreation,” Rodriguez said. “One-hundred percent goes back into recreation to provide opportunities for children to have access to healthy ways of living.”
The Wild Run route includes five places participants will run through where different colors are splashed by machines in a rainbow-shape way and descend on those passing by, Jennifer Rodriguez said.
The course, across the Hollister Municipal Airport, was picked by Hollister Recreation because it has well-condition pavement, parking, and the businesses in the running course area are very supportive, Garza said. Brent Redmond Transportation is planning to reroute trucks around the event or wait until the end of the event to conduct normal business.
Rodriguez said Marich Confectionery, which makes an assortment of chocolate snacks, is putting together teams to participate in the event and will donate snacks. Hollister City Manager Bill Avera is encouraging departments to be a part of the run by giving $100 to the department that has the most involvement.
Corbin Saddles is allowing its property to be used for the event and Hollister Super donated water.
Downtown businesses are also doing their part to support the event. Ohana Shave Ice has offered to pay registration fees for its employees if they want to participate in the Wild Color Run.
“We believe in team building,” Ohana Co-Owner Peter Hernandez said. “We want our employees to be excited to work here. We’re part of the community. We want to encourage them to understand they are part of the same community.”
Hernandez said Ohana has about 12 employees and he will find out who is interested in participating this week in order to plan the staffing during the run.
It is not mandatory to run the entire course. Rodriguez said participants can walk and have fun while doing so. She also said participants don’t have to complete the entire course, they can participate in any way.
“We just want you to go outside and have fun,” Rodriguez said.
The event also includes a post-party throw in which participants will throw a color pouch in the air and the powder will descend on them.
Garza said she began to look into a color run about three years ago because members of adult sports wanted one in Hollister. Companies were looking for cities with a population of at least 80,000.
She said Hollister continued to be put in organizers’ lists and or/denied because the city population was deemed too small to host the event until Titanium Racing agreed to do it. Titanium Racing is a “full service running experience production company,” according to its website.
Rodriguez said they want to build their way up to an eventual marathon.
“As we grow with our population we need to be able to provide more for our community,” Rodriguez said. He added that school cross country and track teams can really benefit having events like this in their backyard.
In order to make the run unique, Hollister Recreation renamed it.
“The Wild Color Run is only offered in Hollister,” Rodriguez said. “ We branded it. This is our specific name so from here on out, the Wild Color Run is Hollister specific.”
The race will begin at 8:30 a.m. July 28. Pre-registered participants receive t-shirt, medal, and pouch of color to throw at the post-party throw.The registration fee is $25.
Registration information and course map is available at https://www.hollisterwildcolor5krun.com.
