This Saturday, on May 4th, National Honors Society (NHS) is in collaboration with SAFER to host a Color Run for the community. The registration fee for runners is to bring one of the following items: Clothing items, a gift card to Walmart or other large department stores, calendars, planners, or gas gift cards. All of the items are going to the Loudoun Abused Women’s Shelter (LAWS) to help women who are victims of sexual or domestic violence and are facing financial hardships due to their circumstances. The Color Run entails a 5k as well as a one-mile fun run at Dominion High School. Registration begins at 8:30am and the races start at 9:15am.

The President of NHS, Sreya Kunapuli, came up with the idea for the Color Run due to her past experience with running one at Dominion High School when she was in eighth grade. Kunapuli added, “When I ran for President of National Honors Society, it was something that I wanted to do because it had impacted me so much that I wanted to do it.”

The event  is a collaboration between  NHS officers and Tom Chuba, the NHS sponsor. Mr. Chuba said, “I provide all the background support that the officers of NHS need, like filling out all the paperwork, getting the permission, and making sure that we have all the funds to cover our expenses.” Mr. Chuba wanted to make sure that the officers had a big role in planning the event, he said of the planning process, “When I met with the officers, I said that these are things that I will do and these are things that you need to do. So that I’m not trying to do the whole thing for them.”

NHS is also working with SAFER to put together this event. SAFER (what it stands for) is a new club at Dominion this year that was founded by Mariam Qureshi. Qureshi said, “I would describe SAFER as a club that’s committed to educating Dominion students about various interpersonal relationships and the boundaries that come with them. I wanna make sure that as few students as possible are left wondering whether their experiences with another person were acceptable.” Qureshi expressed the importance of SAFER as she said,“It’s important to have the tools to make those judgements!”

Qureshi has been apart of NHS for both her junior and senior year, and due to that connection, she reached out to the officers to form this collaboration between the two clubs.

Both NHS and SAFER are hoping that the community comes out on Saturday to support the cause. If someone wants to get involved in the event they can sign up to volunteer or register to run. Sreya Kunapuli said, “The registration is bringing donated household items that the women in the Loudoun Abused Women’s Shelter need, so we are hoping that a lot of people come out and support the local community and the shelter by bringing in household items so that we can give that to them.” Mr. Chuba not only hopes that the Color Run is successful, but also that it continues in the future. When detailing what he hopes the Color Run achieves Mr. Chuba said, “I hope that we get a lot of participation from the community and that we obviously get a lot of donations. And my ultimate hope would be that we can turn this into an annual event.”