Trumansburg high school hosts Equality Fun Run

On June 2, Charles O. Dickerson High School hosted an Equality Fun Run for Racial Justice to benefit the Southside Community Center in Ithaca.

Founded in 1934, Southside, located at 305 S. Plain St. in downtown Ithaca, continues to affirm, empower and foster the development of self-pride among the African-American citizens of greater Ithaca through forums, activities, education, recreation and political and social awareness. The community center serves as a vehicle to develop appreciation for the contributions and presence of people of color in the Ithaca community.

“I gave all the kids a challenge to disrupt racism,” said Kara FrostClapp, eighth-grade social studies teacher. “I decided to add the book ‘Stamped’ to my class and have them read the book as part of the class.”

“Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-winning Stamped from the Beginning,” released in March 2020, features five historical figures and activists and offers unvarnished versions of who they were and the role that racist ideas played in their lives.

Implementing the Equality Fun Run fundraiser was the soon-to-be high school principal, Megan Conaway, who for the past four years has held the position of middle school principal. On July 1, she will begin her new role at Charles O. Dickerson High School.

“We studied ‘Stamped’ in last year’s social studies class,” Conaway said. “I am very excited to be starting as the high school principal on the 1st and am looking forward to my new position.”

A table set up on the edge of the track field offered Fun Run T-shirts for sale and was manned by two students, freshmen Lee Covell and Izabel LaForge. Besides offering the shirts, both students were available to answer questions and provide information about the events being held at the Fun Run.

“We studied the ‘Stamped’ book about anti-racism and were given a project to do something to stand up against racism,” Covell said. “Last year was the start of the project and the first year for the Fun Run. We raised $2,000 for the Southside Community Center last year.”

The event featured attendees running and walking laps around the track to support racial justice and offered all attendees free vanilla, cookie dough and mint chocolate chip ice cream, which was donated by Trumansburg’s Trimmers Ice Cream. Trumansburg bakery Emoticakes provided an impressive collection of extra large, individually wrapped cookies, free to all, that were baked just for the event.

Freshman Hope Augustine, who ran last year’s collection of donations, secured donations from local Trumansburg businesses to be raffled, with the proceeds going to the community center.

“Last year, I got items to be raffled from small or independent Black-owned businesses,” Augustine said. “Last year, we did the raffle where when your ticket was pulled, you could come up and pick from which donation you wanted. This year, we have a jar for each item that was donated, and we pull the ticket from that jar and you win that item. This year, the tickets were one for $1 or 20 for $10.”

This year, many Trumansburg businesses were happy to sponsor and donate items or services to support the Fun Run. Businesses that sponsored and donated include Trumansburg Main Street Market, The Honeybee Embassy, Little Venice, La Belle House of Beauty, Creekside Cafe, Trimmers Ice Cream, Wide Awake Bakery, Emoticakes and the Trumansburg Golf Club.

High School STEAM (science, technology, engineering and math) teacher Paul Weich worked with students to screen-print shirts to sell at the event and help raise proceeds for Southside.

“I added ‘Stamped’ to my classes,” Weich said. “It’s amazing to see how really caring and compassionate these kids are.”

Freshmen Raya Mount and Amara Landon proudly displayed a banner using mixed media and acrylic paint that they had created for the previous year’s Fun Run.

“This was something we made last year, and we thought it would be great to reuse again this year to show that we’re still standing up against racism,” Mount said.

Emcee of the event was Middle School Dean of Students Rob Reakes, who not only announced the winners of the raffle but kept the energy high with music ranging from Dave Matthews Band’s “Lights Up” to Queen Latifah’s “U.N.I.T.Y.”

“The total donation was about $1,800; the total amount of money being donated excluded from Fun Run production is $1,083,” LaForge said. “I want to add all the money used for production was from local businesses!”

Taking pride in the Fun Run event’s success, the high school intends to make the Fun Run an annual event that will continue for years to come and serve as a learning opportunity for students and an asset to the Southside Community Center.

Trumansburg Connection appears every Wednesday in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com.