Eric Logan remembers hearing the word hullabaloo in association with an event while he was in college.
So when the Light of Chance executive director was looking for a name for an event to benefit the nonprofit organization’s Get Set Go program, he looked back to the word – which, according to Merriam-Webster, means “a very noisy and confused situation” – for inspiration.
“It’s catchy,” he said. “It’s doing the trick of what we’re going to do.”
The second annual Hullabaloo Family Obstacle Course Challenge starts with registration at 8 a.m. followed by the first wave at 9 a.m. Saturday at Kereiakes Park. There will be waves every 20 minutes until noon. Cost is $18 for adults and $12 for kids in kindergarten through 12th grade. Kids 4 and under are free. Cost is $12 per person for groups of five or more.
“We had about 175 people last year,” Logan said. “This year we’re hoping to have more than that.”
The Hullabaloo race is a unique mile-long untimed course with 12 challenging obstacles designed to engage families and individuals of all ages and fitness levels, Logan said. Hullabaloo is one of the only obstacle courses in the southcentral area created for the entire family. The activities combine teamwork, family strength and participation.
“We wanted to do something the whole family could be involved in,” he said. “It takes a whole family to live a healthy lifestyle. They can create some great memories and have a positive experience.”
Logan believes last year’s Hullabaloo went well.
“We got some good feedback from parents and kids,” he said. “No matter how well an event goes, you want to improve on it.”
His 2- and 5-year-old children participated.
“You take a Saturday morning and do something together and create a lasting experience,” he said. “It’s something for all ages and all fitness levels. That’s why we did it a mile long. It’s challenging enough but not so overwhelming.”
Free family photos will be texted to families so they can post and upload them to social media if they wish.
All proceeds will benefit Light of Chance’s Get Set Go program, which encourages kids in kindergarten through eighth grade to engage in physical activity while showing them healthier ways of eating in their existing environment to help combat childhood obesity. The program started in 2010.
“Childhood obesity is a serious issue. Looking back over the last years, we say obesity and for a lot of us it doesn’t equate that, ‘I know someone’ or ‘I’m affected by obesity,’” Logan said. “You think extremely large. It leads to heart disease, cancer, diabetes and depression. It’s humanizing it to make people think about it.”
Light of Chance is moving toward doing research beginning in the fall, Logan said.
“We want to study and see how we’re impacting the childhood obesity epidemic. We really want to quantify what we’re doing,” he said. “We want to do formalized studies. We’re doing pre-and post-testing.”
By: ALYSSA HARVEY
aharvey@bgdailynews.com