Thursday, Mar. 14 2013 5:07PM
RUN/WALK
Shake, strip, run
By Toriano Porter
tporter@lsjournal.com
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closeA new twist on the word “strip” has arrived in Lee’s Summit.
Strip as in the first Strip Run, a 5K run/walk event to benefit Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Greater Kansas City. The run begins at 7:30 a.m. March 16, the morning of the eighth annual Emerald Isle Parade. It begins in front of Lee’s Summit City Hall and the concept of the run dictate runners will stop at four “Strip Stations” throughout the race course to deposit items of clothing one at a time to donate to charity.
There will not – repeat – there will not be any nudity involved, said Chris Termini of A Lift Above Creative Training Studio, who, along with Ben Wine of Neighborhood Cafe, organized the event.
“Really, we were just looking for something to do together,” Termini said of the origin of the partnered event. “I’m a personal trainer so I have a lot of people that lose weight and their clothes doesn’t fit any more. It never really struck me what to do with the clothes. That just kind of got brought up and then it (the Strip Run) really just starting growing from there.
“We will have four strip stations for them to run through. Before the race we’ll have like a little raid and we will have them take off their first item of clothing and we’ll play some music to get them hyped up. They’ll jump up and down with their clothes on then we’ll send them off to the first strip station. We’ll have volunteers there from Big Brothers/Big Sisters and we’ll have them collect the clothes. Those clothes will be donated.”
Every runner will get an official “Strip Run” custom soccer scarf made in the U.K. and a pair of “Strip Run” shades Termini likes to call ‘stunners.’
“I run 5Ks and I don’t know where any of my medals are because I don’t care for them,” he said. “We decided to kind of switch it up and we went with scarves – scarves that are really high-quality scarves and we went with sunglasses just to be different.”
Termini also mentioned the run will feature filming for a “Harlem Shake” video he plans to use to promote the event. He added the online, somewhat organized, mostly improvised dance craze that has been viral for a few weeks now is losing its luster and the Strip Run will put it to bed in the most fashionable way possible.
“People are going to be fully clothed for the run and when they get back they are going to have shades and scarves on,” he said. “We have a real good video team there that’s real creative and they’ll make that thing look real good. We’re sending the Harlem Shake to the grave; it’s about done.”
