Event volunteer Charlotte Harding said Sunday’s Martinborough Colour Run sold 97 tickets, including family passes, and more than 100 people participated in the event.
There were kids who ran laps while volunteers threw paint – members of the Martinborough Volunteer Fire Brigade even made a surprise appearance and sprayed the starting lineup with water to ensure the paint adhered to people’s clothes – and balloons, banners, and tutus added to the fundraiser’s festive sense of fun.
“People embrace it in different ways,” Harding said.
The Colour Run is based on a fundraising model in which all the costs of running the event are covered by sponsors. In this case, seven Martinborough-based sponsors bought paint stations and contributed $250 dollars each to the day’s running costs. This allowed all ticket sales to go toward fundraising for the Martinborough Pump Track Project, and about $1600 dollars was collected.
Led by Martinborough Youth Trust, the Pump Track will be an asphalt bike track built in Martinborough’s Considine Park. It will be 220 meters long, with looping banks and rollers, and kids of all ages will be able to ride it.
Harding, who works alongside the trust, said that after 18 months of fundraising, they are close to their goal and are locking in the build for later this year.
“It takes a village to put an event on like this,” she said.
