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Saturday, May 16, 2015

How To Host a School Color Run Fundraiser

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Color Runs are everywhere. They are very popular and extremely fun!
I was given the idea to bring a color run to my school by my fabulous and talented blogging buddy, Amy Labrasciano from Learning Lessons With Mrs. Labrasciano. She posted about the color run her school did. You can read her post here.

I decided to take her idea and give it my own twist.
 
 
I first looked into having a company host our color run. The problem was, they wanted $25 per participant.  In my area that I teach in, that was an outrageous price. It was highly unlikely that we would get enough participants for it to be profitable. Plus, that would mean leaving kids out of the race because they couldn't afford to enter. Yea, not cool with me.

I then decided that I would host the color run as a school on our own. This would mean creating flyers, making the colored powder, etc. 

I decided on a theme for our school's color run. Bee Healthy! It is spring time, so I found it fitting. Plus I love themes. It is so much fun to create everything that goes along with a theme.
I created permission forms and pledge forms for the race. You can download an editable version by clicking here. I even included an editable graphic that you can use on your school's website and/or social media. 
 
This was the graphic I used for my school. 
Now that I had forms completed, it was time to advertise. I created a commercial using iMovie and publishing that on YouTube.  It took me a half our to create. iMovie is so user friendly. Check out my video here. I emailed teachers a few times a week to remind them to show the video. This helped get the students excited about the event. 

To get teachers motivated, I created a few contests for them. One contest award went to the teacher that collected to most donations. Another was to the first teacher to turn in ALL forms. This excited the teachers and got them talking about the color run everyday.

Finally, I needed to get the kids REALLY excited to raise money. I had a very limited budget. My coworker came up with the idea of a silly string party. BRILLIANT! To entice the kiddos even more, I got the principal to attend the silly string party so they would use the silly string on her. 

Onto the color. This was the hardest part of all and I will NOT be doing this next year. As I said before, we had a very limited budget. Like a $50 budget. Fortunately, we were able to get 100lbs of corn starch donated to us. We were also able to get food coloring donated. To make the color, I followed the directions from {this} website. It was tiring and a VERY VERY VERY long process.

The day of the color run came quickly. Kids were excited all day long. I had planned for primary grades to run from 12 to 1pm and intermediate to run from 1-2pm. Next year, I will be spacing out the times. For example, kindergarten at 12pm, first grade at 12:15pm. This will help with crowding issues. The primary grades only ran 1/2 a mile and intermediate ran 1 mile. It was short and sweet. 

As far as the color went, I spaced out volunteers to each corner. I made backup wet color (water, vinegar, and food coloring). I'm so glad I did because it worked WAY better than the powder. 

The color run was a HUGE success at my school. All kids were able to participate even if they didn't donate. The smiles on their faces were priceless. Everyone had a blast. It was a wonderful event. 
I highly recommend you hosting a color run at your school.




 
 

19 comments:

  1. Your story is so great!! It must be fun, just read about silly string party, color run make me excited. I'm not a teacher but it will be a great idea for my English Club in university. Thank you for sharing all the instructions. I can't wait to tell my friends >.<
    P/S: your blog is very nice ;)
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  2. We have our first color run rapidly approaching. In your blog you said you would not make your own color in the future. Do you have any suggestions for where to buy it? Also, how much powder do you recommend for every 25 participants? Thanks!!

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    Replies
    1. www.wholesalecolorpowder.com
      They are great to work with and great prices!

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Do you have a recommended amount of powder? How much did you use? How many students? I work at a relatively small elementary school about 700 students.

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  4. Do you have a recommended amount of powder? How much did you use? How many students? I work at a relatively small elementary school about 700 students.

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  5. Is there anyway you could share your templates? Our school's PTA was going to pay a company to make all of our info and they ended up closing down and our run is NEXT MONTH!

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  6. About a week ago I found a post regarding making the color with food coloring, vinegar, and water as you mentioned above. I can't find the post again and don't know the ratio to use. Do you happen to know what it is?
    Thanks - Barbara

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  7. Question on this - how was the clean up? Our concern was how much of a mess the fields/walks would be. Was this an issue? And, how much did you end up raising (and how big is your school?) Thanks!

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  8. Am I able to use this as a fundraiser for my school? I am unclear on who the funds can go to as it states it is a fundraiser for a specific cause. Thanks.

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  9. Am I able to use this as a fundraiser for my school? I am unclear on who the funds can go to as it states it is a fundraiser for a specific cause. Thanks.

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  10. Yes, I am wondering about clean up too. We are planning to use the park adjacent to the school and they are very particular about what ends up in the park. Also how much color did you need? We are a middle school of 500. Thanks.

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  11. how much food coloring did you use in the liquid color?

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  12. About how long did it take you to plan for this event all together?

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  13. Pretty much great idea. Hosting a color run in school is an amazing activities for kids. Enjoying playing colour powder.

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  14. Did you consider getting sponsors to help offset costs from the school color run company? My school had one and that's what we did. There was a TON of color and mom liked that we received glasses for protection and the color powder was safe. It was really great.

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  15. Thanks for sharing the post.. parents are worlds best person in each lives of individual..they need or must succeed to sustain needs of the family.
    domeinnamen

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  16. Beautiful blog nice photos very attractive and informative. For more informative and attractive blog visit Colour Powder Australia

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