The Student Council Association (SCA) put on their second-ever Color Run and found major success. Around 75 people showed up to the school grounds on Sept. 20 in order to run the 1.5 mile course around the Belmont Greene neighborhood. At the end of the course, participants were splashed with color to celebrate their finish.
The President of Student Council, senior Keaten Calic, started the Color Run tradition with a goal of not only bringing the community together to have fun but to create a more unified student body.
“We have homecoming, we have prom, but we don’t have many events where the whole school comes together for just a couple hours to have fun,” Calic said.
Participation in school sponsored-events has been falling in the past couple of years, but the Color Run provides a low-stakes opportunity for students to bond. Changing the perception of school-sponsored events across the student body was one of the biggest challenges for this year’s run.
“Getting people excited is definitely difficult, and setting up the Color Run does require a lot of work,” Calic said. “But it truly does pay off in the end.”
SCA figured their way around this challenge by creating an event for many people to attend, even those outside of the school building.
“I think things like this make school a lot more fun,” SCA Vice President and senior Liam Fullerton said. “And not just about classes and stuff like that.”
While the school is mainly focused on academics, there is a lot more to that goes into being a Bulldog than test scores. From pep rallies to dances, school-based bonding plays a huge role in bringing the Dog Pound together. For SCA members, fundraising in the community is a big part of being able to put on these events.
“The plan for the funds is to use the money for homecoming or any future events,” SCA Advisor Phillip Campbell said. “Hopefully, we can maybe pull off another dance at some point during the year, or honestly, just anything that benefits the entire Stone Bridge community.”
SCA is optimistic after a successful turnout from the Ashburn community. The contributions from the event will be put towards school-based activities that increase school pride in the people of Ashburn.
“I think the Color Run is a good event because it helps increase school spirit which is very important,” Fullerton said. “Especially when you’re in SCA.”
While SCA wanted to raise money for student activities, it did not deny the fact that the Color Run also brought the Bulldog spirit to Stone Bridge. The true purpose of the event was something that the winner of the 2025 Color run, junior Micheal Petranek, felt during his experience.
“There wasn’t much to winning the run; it was just fun to run and race with some of my friends,” Petranek said. “I’m definitely planning on coming to the Color Run every time we have it because it’s a good and fun way to help fund and support SCA.”
