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Memorial Day Color Blast 5K at Boone Greenway Trail Returns for Fourth Year on May 29

Mast General Store and AmeriCorps VISTA event supports Hospitality House Jobs Skills Training

2016 Color Blast 5K finish line celebration

On Memorial Day, May 29th, 2017, Hospitality House AmeriCorps VISTA project Welcome Home Thriftique will host the Mast General Store Color Blast 5K to raise funds, awareness, and support for High Country men, women and children living in poverty. The 5K Run/Walk will begin at 5pm at the Boone Greenway Trail at Clawson Burnley Park.

“I am so excited to host our 4th annual Color Blast 5K. With local students having to attend school on Memorial Day, it is a thrill to provide a family-friendly event that all members of our community can enjoy,” says Ethan Flynn, AmeriCorps VISTA and Welcome Home Thriftique project manager.

Participants can expect a free photo booth with fun props, face painting, music, food trucks, water, snacks and fruit. A “Fun Run” will be held at 6:30 for kids under 10 to run a lap on the dirt track through clouds of color. The cost is $5 and kids can sign up at the event with parental assistance.

Early registration, now open online at hosphouse.org/colorblast, is $25 for adults and $10 for kids 12 and under.. Pre-register by May 6th to be guaranteed an event t-shirt. Pre-registration forms can also be picked up at Welcome Home Thriftique, 182 Boone Heights Drive, Boone, NC.

On-site registration will begin at 4pm and t-shirts will be first come first serve. On-site registration will be $30 for adults and $15 for kids 12 and under. Cash, check, and credit cards will be accepted.

Those who pre-register can pick up their packets on May 25th, 26th, and 27th from 11 to 4 pm, at Welcome Home Thriftique.

Flynn has organized the event for the past two years and all proceeds will go to support Foundation For Success, a job skills training program and AmeriCorps VISTA initiative of Hospitality House.

“Our self-timed Color Blast is for everyone, including serious runners,” says Flynn. “It gives people a chance to come out and enjoy running or walking while supporting a great cause, and decorating themselves with colorful paint on a holiday.”

The Color Blast is an event that showers runners in an environmentally safe, cornstarch-based colored powder at certain locations along the Boone Greenway Trail. The main idea is to tie-dye each runner’s white event t-shirt by the end of the run. The event welcomes competitive runners, casual runners, joggers, walkers, people with disabilities, families, and all those who are willing to give back to their community. Sorry, no pets. A guide to the color blast will be included in each participant’s packet.

Food donation bins for canned goods, boxed goods and dry goods, like coffee, sugar, tea and bread, will be located at the picnic shelters beside the start and finish of the race.

2016 Color Blast 5K finish line celebration

Hospitality House serves those living in crisis, poverty and homelessness in the seven-county High Country region.. With Watauga County’s poverty rate increasing to 32.1%, making it the highest in the state, the services are in great demand.

Welcome Home Thriftique, a four-year AmeriCorps VISTA collaborative project of Hospitality House, Appalachian State University’s ACT (Appalachian and the Community Together) program and North Carolina Campus Compact, is an upscale resale store with a purpose. All items sold in the store have been donated by the community and 100% of profits go to support the programs and services of Hospitality House. Merchandised items include art, furniture, antiques and collectibles, home goods, décor and name brand clothing- both new and gently used.

Welcome Home Thriftique serves as the classroom for Foundation For Success, providing hands on training in a retail setting. This program is intended to give Hospitality House clients and RISE of the High Country participants the skills and confidence to enter the workforce and continue rebuilding a sustainable lifestyle.

Sponsored by Mast General Store, OP Smiles, Anna Banana’s and M Prints, the event is still welcoming sponsors. For sponsorship opportunities or additional information please contact Flynn at ethan@hosphouse.org or (828) 355-9703

To learn more about Welcome Home Thriftique, follow them on Instagram @WelcomeHomeThriftique; Twitter, @Thriftique182; Pinterest @Thriftique182 and Facebook Facebook.com/WelcomeHomeThriftique

To learn more about Hospitality House, visit them online at www.HospHouse.org, follow them on Twitter @HospHouseBoone or on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/HospHouse