Mechanical engineering freshman Alex Wziontka finishes the race and gets splashed with paint Sunday, Oct. 14, 2012, during the Fall 2012 Spartan Splatter 5K race outside of Conrad Hall. The event hosted by Engineers Without Borders was able to gain near $5,500 to put toward the El Salvador sanitation project. Adam Toolin/The State News
Passers-by near Conrad Hall risked being showered in paint this past Sunday.
More than 350 registered participants attended the fall 2012 Spartan Splatter 5K, hosted by Engineers Without Borders, or EWB. After tossing paint at each participant as they finished the 5K run, EWB members were able to raise about $5,500 for their ongoing El Salvador sanitation project.
“We take corn starch (and) nontoxic-based paint, and pretty much throw it on people,” said EWB president James Rice.
“(We) splatter (participants), get them covered in colors of the rainbow, and they have a good time.”
Although some students were enticed to the event by promise of paint, others were eager to help EWB’s cause.
“They’re raising money to go down to El Salvador, where they can do their engineering and building projects,” said Peter Rustad, interdisciplinary studies in social science junior. “So, I thought I’d come out and support (their project).”
EWB is in its second year of a five-year project to construct compost latrines for a community in El Balsamar, El Salvador, according to Rice.
He said they plan to build and donate 25-30 compost latrines by 2015 because residents of El Balsamar are currently relieving themselves in pit latrines, which can be hazardous to their health.
“As you can imagine, during the rainy seasons in the Central Americas, all that stuff rises up, contaminates their groundwater and makes them sick,” Rice said.
Dietetics sophomore Kari Grigowski said she was ecstatic when she received an invite to the Spartan Splatter on campus.
“I saw that the (EWB) were doing this run, so I just thought I’d go out and try it,” Grigowksi said. “Everyone should do this; it’s a lot of fun.”
Rice said EWB’s Spartan Splatter 5K saw 368 participants.
“We got around 40 people to register on-site, so we did well above what we did last time, and so it was pretty awesome,” he said.
EWB members used profits from previous Spartan Splatters to travel to El Salvador to educate locals on the project and “became part of their family” by doing so.
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