Shades of PolanColorun 2019

Shades of pink, blue and orange dominantly and literally painted the streets of Municipality of Polanco as hundreds of participants were gathered at the municipal plaza to participate and to be part of the town’s history for the first ever color fun run event to be held in the area! The idea of waking up at an ungodly hour to exercise seems like something one would run away from, rather than actually look forward to. Fortunately, this was not the scene as most participants were so eager to partake in the event which took place last March 23, 2019!

This event was participated by almost 500 participants where at least half of them were the students coming from Jose Rizal Memorial State University (JRMSU) of Dipolog City. Interestingly, the Local Government Unit (LGU) and the Department Heads of the different agencies of the Municipality of Polanco were all represented. The involvement of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) was also noteworthy.

Beyond colors and fun, new friendships were formed and several group dynamics surfaced during the event. The idea of this color fun run for a cause was originally conceived by a group of 8 medical students of ADZU-SOM in strong partnership with the Rural Health Unit (RHU) of the Municipality of Polanco, bearing the main objective of procuring an emergency transport vehicle with which the proceeds from this event will be solely used for the benefit of the residents of Barangay Bacuyong, Pinan, Zamboanga del Norte.

Unlike the usual fun runs, the race was only allotted to a distance of 5 kilometers which allowed the participants to run at their own pace to enjoy the experience of volunteers throwing them neon-colored powders refusing to leave a single person unscathed while some athletes seemingly ran for their lives with speeds at par with their fellow runners having the same capabilities.

Throughout the leg of the run, medics were on standby and 3 water stations were set-up for replenishments, making the participants barely looking exhausted while taking photos in between their runs to post on their respective social media accounts. Another bragging rights perhaps for their Facebook or IG stories as they took unending photos of themselves with a smile on their faces!

The #PolanColorun2019 was just one of the major activities that the group had initiated on a larger scale in trying to fund their community health projects with the residents of Barangay Bacuyong as their beneficiaries. It was with great joy to celebrate health awareness through physical activity ending it with a blast leaving everyone colorful, dirty, and downright elated!