About 7,000 participants showed up in sub-freezing weather Saturday morning to start their Valentine’s Day off with a daunting test of their gastrointestinal fortitude.
The Krispy Kreme Challenge is an annual event, now in its 11th year, put together by students to raise money for the North Carolina Children’s Hospital in Chapel Hill.
This year the event raised an estimated $195,000 for the hospital, which is less than the estimated $200,000 the event raised last year. The committee paid more than $20,000 to the Krispy Kreme on North Person Street for the 84,000 doughnuts prepared for the event.
Participants who successfully completed the challenge ran 2.5 miles from the Bell Tower to the Krispy Kreme on North Person Street, stopping to eat a dozen doughnuts before running back to the Bell Tower in under one hour.
The event began as a dare between students in 2004, but once it got the attention of Sports Illustrated, the creators decided to make it an annual event and donate the proceeds to a good cause, according to the Krispy Kreme Challenge website.
Since its inception in 2004, the Krispy Kreme Challenge has raised about $954,000, according to Brandon Honeycutt, a junior studying agricultural business management and co-director for the event.
The funds go to a program called the NC Children’s Promise Grants within the North Carolina Children’s hospital. Employees of the hospital propose grants when they see a need in their individual programs in an effort to provide better care and services to children and their families.
NC Children’s Promise Grants has contributed to programs that provide fun and distracting items to help children deal with invasive surgery. Surgery simulation programs improve the skills of surgeons and programs to prepare and support families of patients for the challenges they may face, according to the website.
Participants took on the challenge for different reasons. For Owen Stone, a recent graduate of NC State, Saturday was his sixth time running the challenge. Stone was dressed as an Oscar Mayer hotdog in hopes that it would help him become a Wienermobile driver.
“I’ve done it six times. I usually don’t make it through,” Stone said. “I’m normally puking halfway through the doughnuts.”
Russell Creswell, a sophomore studying life sciences, saw the event as a milestone as he tries to get into better shape.
“This is the first time I’ve ever run a race because I used to be really out of shape,” Creswell said. “I had to lose a lot of weight.”
Among the participants in the race were a group of 20 Wake County elementary school principals who were running to draw support for the second annual WAKE Up and Read book drive. The drive will provide books to nine of the underprivileged schools in Wake County.
Their goal for this year is to collect 100,000 books , according to Tad Sherman, the principal of Wakelon Elementary School in Zebulon, who was attending the race for the first time.
“If kids can read, they can do anything,” Sherman said.
Wakelon Elementary is one of the schools that will be receiving donated books.
“Many of our students don’t have books in their house, so this is building home libraries so they can enjoy reading,” Sherman said. “We’re already at 25,000 books as of last night, so all of our schools are pitching in because of the run.”
Student Body President Rusty Mau attempted the challenge, but was unable to finish all of his doughnuts.
“It’s a bunch of runners united behind such a crazy idea,” Mau said. “I think it’s just a great way for people to get engaged in the campus community as well as to come together for a great cause.”
The organizers joined with the Raleigh Police Department to set up roadblocks and provide security for the event.
Sydney Grice, a sophomore studying political science and public relations head of the Krispy Kreme Challenge, said organizers made sure the route did not interfere with any important events or limit access to businesses.
“We want to help the city of Raleigh and make sure that this race is not stepping on people’s toes and preserves tourism,” Grice said.
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