On Halloween this year, Chi Alpha Kappa (a women's social club at MSU) put on its first ever philanthropic event. We spent months organizing the first annual Run For Your Life 5k to benefit the Bozeman Help Center. The stress that this event caused our leaders was immense, and come race day, we weren't entirely sure that it would be even a little bit successful. But we had 70 participants. SEVENTY PARTICIPANTS. That's huge!
The race started with a short fun run for the kids. Starting at the front of Bobcat Stadium, a huge group of kids ran down 11th, to campus, and up the mall where we had a few clubs, Chi Alpha Kappa girls, and fraternity men stationed handing out candy. They finished after running up 7th and back to the stadium. My favorite costume was definitely the kitten (who was only about four years old), but we also had two Buzz Lightyears who were a close second.
After the fun run, the 5k began. Almost every participant was in full costume; we had a grandpa (who actually shaved a cul-de-sac into his hair) with his trophy wife as well as Paulie Bleeker (from Juno) and a slice of pizza, amongst other awesome costumes. As each runner crossed the finish line, they were handed a raffle ticket which they could enter into the drawing back by the registration tent. The baskets were spectacular; we had donations from Diesel Pros, Sage Spa Living, the MSU Bookstore, the MSU Ticket Office, as well as seven other local businesses. One basket had two free ski passes to Big Sky Resort. There were also two baskets available for silent auction. I was manning the face painting station, and to wrap it all off we gave the five best costumes gift cards to U-Swirl Frozen Yogurt. There was hot cider and hot chocolate provided by Town & Country Foods.
By the end of the day, the first annual Run For Your Life 5k was an incredible success and I know that relieved a huge weight off the shoulders of our event leads. I have some exciting news to reveal later this week which effects the future of Run For Your Life 5k. The plans as of right now are to make Run For Your Life an annual philanthropic event with Chi Alpha Kappa.
For the primary organization of this event, I took a side step, and allowed some of our girls who had never had the experience of organizing an event learn and create. I think I learned more this way than if I had taken the lead. I know a lot about my own leadership style, the way I handle stress, and my own adaptive leadership tricks, but I hadn't really been able to step back and observe other personalities at work. Our two main leads were extremely different, but worked together pretty well. One is oftentimes abrasive, but always made sure the job got done - I would go so far as to call her an Authoritative type. The other is a lot quieter and calmer and prefers communicating one on one with her supporters rather than in a meeting style. It was interesting to learn from both of them and as an officer of XAK, I was able to practice my coaching. Because of my experience, each one came to me on multiple occasions for advice and I practiced an aspect of leadership I don't often get to use. At one point I had to actually teach the idea of adaptive leadership to both, and press the idea that nothing is going to go right come event day - no matter how thoroughly you plan. At the end of the day, I think all of the club girls learned a lot and I know the Bozeman community enjoyed themselves and the Help Center appreciated the help.
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