A group of students run on Main Street in front of Memorial Hall during the Nearly Naked Mile run Thursday. - Photo by Ashley Swanson
More than 200 CSC students stripped off for charity and a mile-long course around Chadron State College’s inner perimeter Thursday, as part of the 2012 End of the World Party.
The 237 student-runners donated 1,898 articles of clothing, according to one of the event organizers, Sean Munger, 22, senior of Imperial.
According to Munger, last year’s run attracted fewer than 15 participants. Participation increased by approximately 1,546 percent at this year’s Nearly Naked Mile.
The clothing will be donated to a number of different charities and will benefit people as far away as North Africa, according to an event organizer.
“We want to keep it as local as possible,” Munger said, as he listed off charities in Chadron, Gordon, and Alliance to which the group was considering donating; however, he also said that a CSC student travelling abroad would be taking some of the clothes with her to donate to the impoverished in Sudan.
The mile-long run was only one of a series of events that day that were sponsored by four campus organizations and numerous community ones. Students soaked up some sun and water during a two-hour slip ‘n’ slide event, dined on barbeque fare conjured up by CSC’s Creative Dining Services, and splashed in mounds of foam before finishing up the evening with a laser light dance party in the Student Center.
The event’s organizers had to adapt and reorganize as, despite days of sunshine the previous three days, inclement weather rolled in and forced some events to be moved or restructured.
“When all things can go wrong, you plan around them and adapt to the situation,” James Bahensky, 22, senior of Anselmo, said. “It was a great learning experience for us.”
Despite the on-and-off rain showers throughout the afternoon and evening, the weather didn’t dampen the participants’ enthusiasm for the day’s activities.
“The weather wasn’t ideal, but considering the circumstances, we had an unbelievable turnout,” Munger said.
Based on post-event feedback, sponsors and participants were grateful for the turnout and the ability to blow off steam before finals while doing some good in a creative and unconventional way.
“The support from those on and off campus from these events was phenomenal,” Bahensky said. “I couldn’t ask for more.”
