On the night of April 17, the campus of Shawnee High School will be illuminated by various colors of florescent lights like it never has before.
The school is looking forward to its first Glow Run for Haiti, a fundraiser organized by the school’s National Honor Society.
Senior Taylor Patterson brought the idea forward last year. Since then, students have been taking the Medford community by storm, trying to gather donations and sponsors to make the event a success.
“I got a bunch of students that went around in the summer to bring letters around to different businesses and get the word around a little bit,” Patterson said.
Patterson came up with the idea for a fundraiser after volunteering at the Hope Alive Clinic during her sophomore year. After meeting founders Frank and Leslee Jacobs through church, she got involved with their organization.
Hope Alive is a nonprofit group with a focus on sending money to Haiti. The funds are used to provide medical care, dental care, clean water and other projects for the people there.
Patterson became so involved with the clinic, she wanted to get her fellow classmates involved as well. With the help of social media, she was able to spread the word quickly about her mission.
“They all really liked the idea,” she said. “We have a Class of 2014 group on Facebook, and I told everyone about it on there.”
When coming up with ideas for an event, Patterson didn’t want to do a typical run. She proposed a glow run at night and got an overwhelmingly positive response.
“I gave the idea of doing a glow run, and that seemed to get a lot of attention,” she said.
The event is scheduled to go from 6:45 to 10 p.m. To help the participants illuminate Shawnee’s tucked away, wooded campus, items such as glow sticks and glow in the dark shirts will be used.
Patterson believes the event will be unlike any other fundraiser in the area.
“We’re going to line the path with glow balloons, different glow sticks and other items,” she said.
The National Honor Society is working on getting businesses to sponsor the event and make donations toward their cause. Patterson said they have gotten a little more than $3,000 in donations and they expect to raise more money prior to the event.
“A lot of businesses have made a lot of donations so far,” she said.
The donations also go beyond monetary. To help hold the event, items such as tents and banners are being provided for free or a discounted rate.
Any money not being used for expenses will go to Hope Alive.
“Some of the sponsor money will be used to cover other expenses, but all of the rest of the sponsor money and registration money is going directly to the Hope Clinics,” Patterson said.
Patterson and her classmates are working to gather more sponsors and runners for the event. Anyone who is interested in either running or being a sponsor can send an email to [email protected].
All registrants will receive a t-shirt, glow sticks and tickets to win gift baskets.
