Organizers of Fayette’s Hawaiian Run Thingy announce the addition of the Woodruff Arts Center as a sponsor, and several exciting additions to the event. Authentic fire performances and professional hula dancers will be entertaining families and friends at this community fun event on Saturday, April 18.
If you’re wondering why they call it a “thingy,” here’s the customized definition: “thingy: that which is different and fun, and includes something for everyone.”
The inaugural Hawaiian Run Thingy! is more than an opportunity to break out your Hawaiian shirts and dust off your grass skirts. The event includes a 5K and a 1-mile fun run, walk, and roll, a race for wheelchair bound participants. Hula dance lessons, limbo, karaoke, trike races, a Hawaiian shirt contest, bouncy house, coconut roll, Dance Central, live music and so much more will be happening at the Heritage Christian Church beginning at 4:30pm. That’s right. A race that doesn’t start at o’dark-thirty.
“Safe Space” hosted by Southside Support, will be on site to support families with special needs. Truett’s Luau, a sponsor of the event, will be at the grill preparing fresh Hawaiian burgers and yummy sides for dinner. Piedmont Fayetten Hospital, also a sponsor, will showcase healthy ways to eat, get physical and stay fit. If you are looking to enjoy a Hawaiian experience without the cost of travel, the Hawaiian Run Thingy is your destination.
Hawaiian Run Thingy is a fundraiser for AVPRIDE, a local nonprofit Youth Leadership Development organization that offers tutoring, mentoring and youth development programs. The event is an outgrowth of AVPRIDE board members and staff participating in the Fayette Visioning Initiative, which identified community as a focus area.
Pam Reid, Executive Director for AVPRIDE, has marveled at how something new and fun emerges with each collaboration among community leaders and stakeholders.
“It is exciting to watch the planning for this event to unfold,” Reid says. “Our community has been home to many wonderfully engaging events that spark our desire to be involved, connected, healthy, creative and educated. Now it’s time for Fayette County’s firstever Hawaiian-themed 5K run and fun thingy.”
For more information and to register for the 5K and 1 mile fun run & 50 yard roll, visit www.avpride. org.
About AVPRIDE:
Founded in 1996, the Association of Village PRIDE, Inc., (AVPRIDE) seeks to prepare children to be successful in the global economy. The mission of AVPRIDE is to assist Fayette County youth to become conscious and productive citizens of society who will make significant contributions to their community.
Examples of AVPRIDE initiatives in Fayette County include:
- Student-driven community service projects that included, collecting clothes for teenagers in protective custody, raising money for the Sickle Cell Foundation, Raising money to help equip a library in Nigeria, collecting food for theFayette Samaritans
- Providing community service hours to many organizations in the community including, Fayette Chamber of Commerce, The Clothes Less Traveled, The FACTOR Summer Camp Expo, Fayette Human Services Council, DFAC’s Holiday Helper Program, The Fayette Family YMCA
- Serving over a thousand youth and their families since 1998
- Providing 24 Audra Nicole Oliver Memorial Scholarships and Taylor Noelle Conigland Memorial Scholarships to graduating high school seniors from Fayette County Schools since 2002
- Student-designed and prepared Fayette County dining guide for smoke-free restaurants and the hazards of second-hand smoke that was published in the newspaper and brochures distributed throughout the county in 2004
- Chosen by the state of Georgia to address underage drinking in Fayette County since 2012 • Providing workplace readiness workshops for high school students and summer internships through their Career Exploration Program
