Third Annual Zombie Run Needs Your Pumpkins

Brianna Gibbs/KMXT

Halloween is Thursday and many Kodiak door steps are already littered with carved pumpkins, lighting up neighborhoods and enticing soon-to-be trick-or-treaters. But what do folks do with those pumpkins come November 1, when festivities turn toward Thanksgiving, and the ghoulish squash are no longer needed? A group of students at Kodiak College has a suggestion.
Emily Abel is the student government president and said they are holding a pumpkin carving contest after Halloween.
“We’re asking that people bring the submissions in November 1 before 5 p.m. and then the pumpkins will be judged by the runners in the zombie run and the pumpkins will be used to decorate the zombie run.”
Kathryn Hollis-Buchanan is the student government adviser and said folks can get rid of their old pumpkins and help decorate what will be the third annual zombie run.
“It starts at the college, goes back through to Woody Way Loop and then it stays on Rezanof down towards Abercrombie. We’ll have some one there halfway through a 5k to turn them around and they’ll run back to the college. We do time, it’s not a certified course by any means, but it’s a lot of fun and the cost of it is $5 to enter and all the proceeds go toward a scholarship for students, in the name of Sue Thompson. SO it’s a Sue Thompson scholarship.”
Buchanan said the run has become somewhat of a tradition, and started three years ago to memorialize the college’s former financial aid adviser.

“The first year was of course the year Sue Thompson died, she’s a local favorite and worked at the college for many, many years so we really want to continue to support that cause, and that’s kind of why we started the zombie run, something that would give us our stream of revenue that we could put toward scholarship every year.”
Buchanan said last year the scholarship amount was about $400.
Saturday’s zombie run starts at 9 a.m. with registration opening at 8 a.m. in the college parking lot. Those hoping to donate their discarded pumpkins can drop them off at the college on Friday. On race day the pumpkins will be judged by the runners in different categories that have yet to be determined.