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St. James holds color dash

Kalen McCain

Oct. 7, 2024 12:29 pm

A volunteer slings a scoop of orange-dyed corn starch at a St. James student, during the school's "color dash," an annual celebration concluding its fall fundraiser. (Kalen McCain/The Union)
A volunteer slings a scoop of orange-dyed cornstarch at a St. James student during the school's "color dash," an annual celebration concluding its fall fundraiser. (Kalen McCain/The Union)

Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.

WASHINGTON — St. James Elementary students ran through dyed clouds of cornstarch flung by staff and sponsors Friday, Oct. 4 in an event organizers called a “color dash.”

The celebration concludes the private school’s annual fall fundraising push, in which students are tasked with soliciting donations, and rewarded with an afternoon hour of outdoor fun, racing through closed streets around the building.

“We used to do food sales, and we wanted to do something kids actually participate in,” said St. James Preschool Program Director and Home and School Committee Member Kim Farrell, who helped organize the dash. “We ask them to raise $40 per person, that way they don’t have to go door-to-door selling stuff.”

A runner at St. James fails to evade a blast of blue corn starch, one of many vibrant handfuls flung at the school's annual color dash. (Kalen McCain/The Union)
A runner at St. James fails to evade a blast of blue cornstarch, one of many vibrant handfuls flung at the school's annual color dash. (Kalen McCain/The Union)

Farrell said the school raised $4,411 through the program in 2023. It had raised $2,900 for this year’s, as of Thursday, but Farrell said she expected the number to jump considerably once Friday’s contributions were counted.

She said students got excited about the color dash, showing up in white outfits they were ready to douse in shades of blue, yellow, orange, pink and purple.

Principal Erik Buchholz agreed, saying the dash was a hit with everyone involved.

“I’ve never seen kids have so much fun, and people have so much fun throwing the color on other people, that you can raise money doing something like that,” he said. “It’s an opportunity for families to just spend time together, have a lot of fun and raise money for St. James … you can really raise money just flat-out having fun.”

Some walked around St. James at a leisurely pace for the color dash, while others tried - with varying success - to sprint past stations where adults threw handfuls of dyed cornstarch onto white clothes. (Kalen McCain/The Union)
Some walked around St. James at a leisurely pace for the color dash, while others tried — with varying success — to sprint past stations where adults threw handfuls of dyed cornstarch onto white clothes. (Kalen McCain/The Union)

Comments: Kalen.McCain@southeastiowaunion.com

Article Tags Washington County, Iowa, Washington, Iowa
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