Clouds of green, orange, yellow and pink burst from the crowd, painting the gray skies overhead as cheers rang through Green Estates Park.
The annual Uplift Mid MO 5k run/walk fundraiser was held Saturday. It raised over $8,000 before proceeds from same-day registration were tallied.
This year, due to the availability and time constraints of both the park and the pavilion at Green Estates and Teal Lake, Uplift had to host the annual fundraiser in July. Worried about the summer heat, Libby Landrum, director of programs, and her team decided to incorporate water for the first ever Uplift Splash and Dash.
Sponsors and area churches were stationed along the trail armed with water balloons, squirt guns and the iconic colored powder that Landrum said stuck even better thanks to the pre-race rain they experienced.
Uplift began hosting color runs in 2021 as a community fundraiser.
“We thought that would be fun,” Landrum said. “We didn’t have something like that around here and it was a great way to unite our churches.”
Uplift Mid MO was started in 2019 as a “gap ministry” that aims to cover needs that other organizations aren’t able to cover.
“It’s not reinventing the wheel; there are other programs similar to it, but what we do is we unite churches in the area,” Landrum said.
She explained that people often turn to churches in times of need in search of food, financial assistance and more. But there are a lot of smaller churches, especially in the more rural parts of Audrain County, and that sort of assistance isn’t always feasible.
“What this does is it takes the pressure off our churches and the financial part of things then gets turned over to us,” Landrum said. “We also work with mentoring them so that we are not perpetuating the problem and we are trying to break cycles.”
In addition to connecting 15 Audrain County churches, Uplift Mid MO is also partnered with local agencies and Landrum said that being connected with a church is not a caveat to receive services.
“We have to pool our resources as a community,” she said.
After they crossed the finish line, racers made their way back to the Teal Lake Pavilion where Summer Day’s Shave Ice was waiting with cold summer treats and Uplift volunteers had the foam machines pumping out bubbles for all to enjoy.
“It was messy, it was awesome, and we couldn’t ask for a better day,” Landrum said.
