On Sunday, October 28, ten Kent students and faculty members laced up their running shoes and got ready for the 42nd Annual Kent Pumpkin Run. At the same time, eleven students were at the starting line helping out with the race. The five-mile run helps support the Kent Food Bank, a local charity that feeds underserved families in the area, as they prepare for the holiday season, which is their busiest time of year. The day began with the one-mile Kids Fun Run at 11:15, followed by the five-mile run at noon.

Before the start of the races, volunteers from our boys and girls cross country teams were at The Kent Green; they helped direct parking, pointed spectators in the right direction, handed out water and cheered at the mile markers. Tyler Krasusky ’20 said that “it was great to be able to help the larger Kent community, especially since it was supporting the food bank.”

The student runners were filled with excitement when the starting gun went off at noon. Lara D’Alessandro ’19 remarked, “I had always really wanted to try it out. Now that it’s my senior year, I didn’t want to leave Kent without doing it.” Longer than the 5K races she and the other cross country runners were used to, she said that “the race felt long–because it was–but also because we had just run a 5K the day before.” Nevertheless, Lara still came away as the 3rd fastest woman overall, with Jim Wang ’19 and Brandon Schuster ’19 coming in second and third, respectively, for the men’s 17-19 age group. At the end of the day, the race was a success for these seniors and a great showing for the Kent community.