A school color run fundraiser is a fun and engaging way to raise money for a good cause. Participants love celebrating with our vibrant color dust. But organizers tend to get a little worried about the mess that the color dust can leave behind.

But have no fear! By preparing ahead of time, color dust cleanup can be a breeze. Just follow these five tips for a fast and easy color run fundraiser cleanup.

1. Contact City Officials Beforehand

With any event, it’s often a good idea to contact your city, park or district officials for best practices and local ordinances. Sometimes with larger amounts of color dust, street sweepers and storm drainage containment teams may be needed. City officials can often help suggest a street sweeping company to clean up and rinse the streets after a race. They may even want to send a few people to your color run fundraiser to help out come race day.

2. Prepare Participants And Parents

Prior to the race, make sure participants and parents of participants know how to dress come race day and how to clean up after the color run fundraiser. The following are some quick and easy tips to share with participants and parents prior to race day:

• Bring old towels to cover and protect the seats of your car. It’s also a good idea to bring a change of clothes for the drive home.
• Put your phone in a Ziploc bag to keep the color dust from staining your case or getting into your phone.
• Participants with light-colored hair should consider putting coconut oil in their hair prior to the race to keep the color from absorbing.
• Our color dust usually washes out of most clothes, but cleaning results can vary. To make life easier, wear your Color-A-Thon T-shirt.
• Wear shoes that you won’t mind getting dirty.
• Bring baby wipes for quick cleanup after the race.
• Regular soap will often get most of the color dust off. For more stubborn color, try soap with salicylic acid.
• When washing color run clothes, make sure you wash them in one load and in cold water.
• If participants would like to preserve the color in their T-shirt, simply spray it with vinegar and iron it.

3. Plan For Spills

Color dust or water spills are going to happen. By planning for these messes, you can avoid potential slips, trips and general mayhem. Have a Shop-Vac handy and plenty of paper towels. You can also now rent portable sinks which are super helpful for large events like a color run fundraiser.  

If color dust gets onto walkways, you can use leaf blowers to simply blow it away. And if color dust gets tracked into buildings, use the Shop-Vac or a dust mop to clean the floors.

4. Utilize Tarps  

Our color dust is not harmful to the environment and is a safe and responsible way to get messy for a good cause. But it does make life, and general cleanup, easier if you’re able to minimize the mess. The best way to accomplish this is to utilize tarps where you can. Tarps can help contain the color dust and keep participants and volunteers from tracking it into areas that you don’t want to get messy.

5. Set Up A Color Dust Blower Station

It’s a great idea to set up one or more Color Dust blower stations at your school color run fundraiser. At these stations, volunteers can blow any excess color dust off of participants using leaf blowers on the lowest setting. While the leaf blowers won’t get participants 100 percent clean,  the blowers will at least help clean them up enough for the drive home.

Have Safe, Messy Fun With A School Color Run Fundraiser

Each School-A-Thon color run fundraiser uses safe, non-toxic and washable color dust for the health and safety of participants, volunteers and the environment. It’s part of our mission to provide a fun, interactive alternative to traditional fundraiser events. Have a question or need more information about our color run fundraiser options? Reach out today!

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