About 100 congregated at College Green for the Bare on the Bricks Glow Run drew Thursday night as the donations go towards My Sister’s Place, Good Works and Hocking Athens Perry Community Action.
College Green became a hub for everything glow-in-the-dark Thursday night as students stripped down to their skivvies for a cause at the Bare on the Bricks Glow Run.
Freezing rain postponed the original event, scheduled for Feb. 21.
“I think people are having a lot of fun. There seems to be a lot of people here so I see a lot of nakedness, that’s always a good thing,” said Kendra Lutes, vice president of philanthropy for the Student Alumni Board.
The event had featured paint drums, clothing donations, a boxer station for the runners, glow sticks, body paint, glow-in-the-dark beach balls and water guns.
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Sponsored by Ohio University Student Alumni Board and Phi Kappa Psi, the Bare on the Bricks was the sixth annual installment of the philanthropic event. Event organizers did not immediately know how much money was raised.
Though when the previous event was cancelled, organizers still held the after-party, where more than $1,000 was raised and 14 bags of clothing collected.
The run, which included more than 100 people, started at College Green and wound its way to the Alumni Gateway.
About 140 people registered, said Phil Decker, a junior studying mechanical engineering and a member of SAB. Participants donated 13 bags full of clothes Thursday night.
Money raised from the events will go toward My Sister’s Place, a domestic violence shelter that serves Athens and nearby counties. The organization provides a 24-hour hotline, outreach counseling and court advocates for victims of domestic violence.
The clothes will be dispersed to non-profits around the area including My Sister’s Place, Hocking Athens Perry Community Action and Good Works.
“I just like the fact that we give back to Athens and I think it’s a cool concept that you literally take your clothes off your back and then run nearly naked,” said Taylor Graf, a junior studying finance and business management major and a member of Phi Kappa Psi.
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This was the first time the event took place on a weeknight.
“I’m kind of hoping to see it happen again ... I think the night run is such a fun idea,” Andrew O’Boyle, a senior studying economics and a member of SAB.
The rescheduled the event was incidentally on the same time as Take Back the Night, an annual march held to raise awareness for victims of sexual assault.
“Neither of our organizations knew that the event was happening tonight,” Lutes said.
Take Back the Night gave Bare on the Bricks an itinerary, which outlined when the event would be passing through college Green. Take Back the Night organizers asked Bare on the Bricks organizers to turn off the music and remain silent when they passed through the area, Lutes said.
“It worked out great ... our members were like cheering them on as they passed here through College Street,” Lutes said. “I think it was a good collaboration between the two of us to work it out and make sure that it went off without a hitch.”
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The event was also DJed by Jimmy Herpy, vice president of communication
for SAB.
He thinks the glow in the dark aspect was a reason that some people came out tonight.
“My favorite part being DJ was when everyone was dancing, throwing paint on each other,” Herpy said.
@megankhenry
