Early on Saturday morning, October 29, Philanthropists at Colgate (PAC) and their co-sponsors, the Blue Diamond Society and Gamma Phi Beta, kicked off the second annual 5K race from 110 Broad Street. At 9:30 a.m., as part of the Family Weekend programming, 83 runners from across a wide range of training and age groups left the start line.

In the women’s category, the first, second and third place winners were junior Sarah Johnson, who is recovering from a sprained ankle, senior Nicole Hawkins and senior Sophie Salzman, while the top three men were Stephen Hawkins and Christian Burglin, who are not Colgate students, and junior John Metelski. Friends and volunteers cheered them on throughout the event, which covered a residential section of Hamilton. Pies, cheers and the opportunity to immediately get out of the chilly wind were the participants’ prizes.

 Additionally, when racers arrived at the finish line, they were greeted by the tables of refreshments and autumnal activities, like pumpkin-decorating, that had been set up as they ran. With Serengetee representatives donating a third of their t-shirt sales from the event and high turnout from Colgate students’ siblings, parents, friends and relatives, the 5K race raised $3,600 for its charity Voices Against Brain Cancer (VABC).

“Voices Against Brain Cancer is a very important thing in the house. My dad actually had a brain tumor when I was a kid,” said junior Hillary Kupferberg.

The goals of Voices Against Brain Cancer are to search for a cure and spread awareness of the disease.

“We’ve been planning this since July, and there have been probably 20 different people involved,” junior Zack Silver said. “I want to thank all the people who participated – we couldn’t do it without them.” His co-organizer junior Zane Krakovitz ran the race himself and came in tenth. 

As an interest house, PAC sponsors monthly philanthropy events open to the Colgate community, raising money for three charities. Other past events include September’s 9/11 Concert to Remember for the 9/11 Relief Fund and the Red Ball.

Contact Lee Tremblay at [email protected].