Rathmines Public School to hold colour run on Friday, June 24
LAST year was a tough one for the Rathmines Public School community.
In February, fire destroyed the school hall and canteen.
Then in April, storms brought trees crashing down onto classrooms, while other rooms were flooded.
“In the hall fire, we lost all of the school’s sporting equipment and musical instruments, all of the canteen, and even the honour boards and parts of the school history,” P&C president Allison Fittler said.
After the storms, the fallen trees meant more parts of the school were suddenly off limits.
“It hasn’t been a great year at the school, and morale hasn’t been fantastic,” Ms Fittler said.
The hall is still yet to be replaced, and the school continues to feel the effects of the disruption.
That’s why the school P&C has decided to host a colour run at the school this Friday.
In colour runs, participants wear white around a course past various stations where attendants spray them with cornstarch coloured with food dye.
Different colours are dispensed at different stations.
And by the end, participants look like they’ve run through a messy rainbow. The coloured powder does wash out. Apparently…
FUN RUN: Students will wear white t-shirts and be sprayed with cornflour coloured with food dye as they pass each station on the course. The fun starts at 12.30 on Friday, June 24. Picture: David Stewart
“We’re just trying to lift the morale in the school and to have some fun,” Ms Fittler said.
“We’ve opened it to the students and their families, and if auntie and grandma want to come along, too, they can.”
The event is a school fundraiser, with participants asked to pay $15 (or $30 for a family) to run the course on the school oval.
Relieving principal Matt Elston said the fire hit the school particularly hard.
The hall had been regularly used by the school community for everything from assemblies and dance classes to sport and presentations.
Apart from musical and sporting equipment, it housed a lot of audio-visual equipment, too.
Mr Elston said the school community was holding up well.
“The parents and the kids have been fantastic,” he said.
“Their resilience has been brilliant.”
He said the colour run would be a fitting reward for them.
The run starts at 12.30pm.