Youth beat expectations at 5K color run

Photos by Catherine Stachowiak

The organization, Kern Youth For Christ held a 5K Color Run, Saturday, November 16. The starting line was behind the Kernville Randall Baseball Field where the participating youths were sprayed with chalk colors before starting.
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“This is our first Youth For Christ 5K Color Run. Our plan is to do this every year. We’re raising money for local events,” said organizer of the event, Michael Henson.

Henson who works for Youth For Christ and works with the youth at Camp Erwin Owen said, “We also are raising some money to go on missions to Africa, Uganda, Italy and Ireland. So we’re just trying to make a local event so people can come out, have some fun and support the youth; because the youth definitely need our love and our help.”

The organization Youth For Christ goes to the schools and to juvenile centers and tries to give back to the community by guiding youth in a positive direction.

Supervised boys from Camp Erwin Owen also participated in the Color Run along with other groups of kids and teens.

The route was expected to take about 30 to 45 minutes that day.

The first place winner of the group ages 1-10 was Ryker Lanza who timed out at 25 minutes, 39 seconds. Coming in second in the same category was Lexi Henson. Placing third in the same age level was Bash Henson.

For the ages 11-18 category Noel Guarneros placed first at 24 minutes, 50 seconds. Kassandra Guarneros placed second. And coming in third was Eden Lanza.

In the category for ages 19+ Jamo Mechem won first place, coming in at 20 minutes, 10 seconds. Logan Sampson came in second place. Landin came in third place.

Organizers expected the run to take anywhere from 30 to 45 minutes. Most runners winning in the event came in earlier than 30 minutes.