Support Veterans through COMBAT Color Run April 23

Luke Cloud and the Students Supporting Veterans, a University of Wyoming Recognized Student Organization, want you to dust off your running shoes to support combat veterans at an April event.

The annual COMBAT Color Run will take place at noon Saturday, April 23, at Optimist Park in Laramie. The run, in its fifth year, will be hosted in Laramie for the first time.

Proceeds from the event, organized by the Students Supporting Veterans (SSV) group, will benefit the Wounded Warrior Project to help the nation’s veterans. It is sponsored by AMVETS (or American Veterans), a national organization that is one of America’s leading veterans service organizations with more than 250,000 members.

Pre-registration for the COMBAT Color Run is $30 for adults, $20 for children between ages 10-15 and free for children younger than 10. Prices will increase after Friday, April 1, but registration is available on the day of the event. The entry fee includes an event T-shirt, a pair of sunglasses, a package of color and water.

For more information, go to www.COMBATColor.com or contact Cloud at COMBATColorFunRun@gmail.com. Like COMBAT Color on Facebook at www.facebook.com/COMBATColorFunRun/.

The event is a timed fun run that combines camouflage and “battles” of color. Participants can choose a 3-mile run or a 1.5-mile walk.

Runners are encouraged to wear camouflage and a white shirt to make the color more visible. At the finish line, runners are incited into “battles” with their family and friends. There also will be live music and food and drink vendors, and extra color and T-shirts will be available for purchase. 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.

Cloud, the SSV secretary, initiated the Wyoming event four years ago in Sheridan when he was the president of the local veterans club.

“This is the fifth COMBAT Color Run and the first to be hosted in Laramie,” Cloud says. “I struggled after my deployments and was lucky enough to find the help I needed. I created this event to give back and help other veterans.

“The members of Student Supporting Veterans will be supported by AMVETS, and we encourage everybody to come out and join this family-friendly event. Help us remember our nation’s warriors and all their sacrifices they have provided us,” he adds.

Cloud, a UW electrical engineering senior, 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.

 “COMBAT Color is not about who wins or loses,” Cloud says. “It’s about having fun and celebrating our nation’s warriors.”