Third Annual COMBAT Color Fun Run Supports Veterans

A student group at the University of Wyoming will honor military veterans with a community fun run later this month.

UW’s Students Supporting Veterans (SSV) group will host the third annual COMBAT Color Fun Run in Laramie on April 21. The run will take place at Optimist Park and begins at 11 a.m.

COMBAT Color is a 3-mile run or 1.5-mile walk and game of color tag. Runners are encouraged to wear camouflage and a white shirt to makes the color more visible. At the finish line, runners are incited into “battles” with their family and friends. Volunteers along the run route “battle” runners by throwing handfuls of color (cornstarch dyed with food coloring) at runners as they pass. Runners “battle” volunteers by throwing color back.

Children and students pay $20 for a registration packet, which includes a T-shirt, sunglasses and two packets of color to throw. Adults pay $30 for a registration packet. For registration or payment, go to the COMBAT Color website. The run is sponsored by the UW Engineering Fund for Enrichment (EFE) and Associated Students of the University of Wyoming.

There are 100 free registration packets, courtesy of UW EFE, for students in the College of Engineering and Applied Science. Everyone who invites 30 or more friends on Facebook is entered in a drawing for a $100 Visa gift card.

Luke Cloud, a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering at UW, started the event years ago in Sheridan, Wyo., when he was the president of the local veteran’s club. Cloud is a Marine Corps veteran. He served from 2001-08 with deployments to Iraq in 2004 and to Africa in 2007. Originally from Alabama, he has been at UW since 2013 and in Wyoming for more than a decade. Cloud says he struggled after his deployments and was fortunate to find assistance, so he created the event to give back and help other veterans.

“This is the eighth COMBAT Color Run and the third to be hosted in Laramie," Cloud says. "We have raised $13,000 in scholarship money at UW, which doesn't include $3,000 in scholarships awarded over the last two years. Help us continue to provide scholarships for our veterans and those who support them here at UW by making this the best COMBAT Color yet."

To donate to COMBAT Color and its veteran scholarship, go to the university crowdfunding page.

The event will feature music and food and drink vendors, and extra color and shirts will be available for purchase. All proceeds will go to benefit the SSV, the Connor Cloud Scholarship for Veterans, and our nation’s warriors. For more information, email combatcolorfunrun@gmail.com.