To raise awareness for the newly developed Board of Directors, the Safe and Drug Free program sponsored the first Zombie Run on the cross-country course on Oct. 21.
“Since the Safe and Drug Free Board of Directors is new this year, the Zombie Run was a great way to get the word out about our group,” senior member Jennifer Rubin said.
The Safe and Drug Free Programs are dedicated to teaching youth about drug and alcohols abuse. However, another goal of the programs is to show students other methods of entertainment without harming themselves.
“[The Zombie Run] was a way to show te
enagers that they can have fun with their friends on a Saturday night that doesn’t involve drugs or alcohol,” Rubin said.
Students from ranging from sixth to 12th graders participated in three types of races: the 1-mile run, 2-mile run, and a 5K run. Each run had 3 different waves for runners to participate in.
“We wanted to create a fun event that would include not only high schoolers, but students from all over the district,” junior member Libby Kaiser said. “We also wanted to create the event so that it would appeal to all ages.”
However, the runners were not the only important aspect of the race. In order to make it more entertaining for the runners, the Board of Directors recruited high school volunteers to dress up as zombies to scare runners along the course. Senior Tim Whyman enjoyed being able to interact with the runners while dressed up with fake blood.
“The best reaction I got from one of the runners was when S scared one by jumping out from behind a brick wall,” Whyman said. “But they were so scared that they turned and started chasing me.”
While Kaiser and Rubin were happy with the amount of people who came to the race, they both agreed that there is room for improvement for next year. One of the challenges this year was that since it was the first race th
ey had done, they had to plan out every single detail.
“Next year, we will be able to improve a lot of little things,” Kaiser said. “The event as a whole turned out great, but now we know what worked and what did not work. It should be a lot easier and organized next year.”
