National hit Colour Frenzy returns to Toowoomba where it all began
A Toowoomba-first colour run has exploded into a national phenomenon, transforming more than 250,000 Australians into "walking rainbows" while raising funds for schools and charities. OUR PICS HERE:
As unusual as it sounds, a national event that has turned more than 250,000 Australians into “walking rainbows” started in Toowoomba nearly a decade ago.
“The first one was in Toowoomba in 2016 and that’s where it grew and expanded from,” Lauren Leidig said while reflecting on the explosive success of Colour Frenzy.
The “colour run” business and fundraising machine for countless schools, animal shelters and charities made its return to the Garden City on Sunday at Newtown Park.
Hundreds of locals were doused in coloured powder across the five stages of the colour run, the proceeds of which go partly to local groups like Angels Rescue Toowoomba.
After its modest start in Toowoomba with founder Clayton Bielby, Colour Frenzy now organises more than 25 fun runs across Australia, with events in Perth and Adelaide attracting more than 4000 people.
Ms Leidig, who is a former Toowoomba resident and one of three directors of Colour Frenzy, said a big part of the company’s mission was offering a platform for local schools and groups to fundraise by hosting their own colour runs.
“We visit a minimum of 25 different locations every year around Australia, and that’s not including schools – if we add schools, that’s going to go up into the hundreds,” she said.
“That’s in excess of a quarter of a million people that we’ve made into walking rainbows.
“Our biggest driving factor was supporting animal rescues, because we know a lot of rescues just don’t have time or the ability to fundraise in some cases on top of everything else they do, because they’re usually all volunteer-led.
“Because we work so heavily with schools and we’ve got a peer-to-peer fundraising platform that we’ve built that’s really customised to schools, it gives them a huge advantage to their fundraising.”
Ms Leidig said other community groups that volunteer their services have been able to fundraise off the event.
“They might come in and do a rubbish collection, do a sausage sizzle, sell some baked goods or be the colour sprayers, and we’re then giving donations back to community groups in the regions that we support,” she said.
“As an example, we were in Port Macquarie two years in a row and our two years of giving them donations for their voluntary services and selling their sausage sizzles actually sent their junior rugby league team over to Fiji to be a part of a big multi nation competition.”
Toowoomba Colour Frenzy gallery
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