Christmas Fun-Run

The holiday season brings with it weeks full of sumptuous meals, decadent desserts and other diet-unfriendly offerings.

Burn off some of those excess calories while helping local students at a new Christmas-themed 5K planned for this weekend.

The Rotary Club of Greenwood and Greenwood Christian Academy will present the Christmas Family Fun Run/Walk at 10 a.m. Saturday. Race registration will begin at 8:30 a.m.

Race organizers are encouraging people to wear their favorite ugly Christmas sweaters, and dress their pets up in holiday finery. Contests for both will follow registration.

The first 300 people who register also get a free Santa suit.

“There isn’t any Christmas-themed runs here in the Greenwood area, and we thought it would be fun,” said Amy Lee, president-elect for the Rotary Club. “We hope to do it every year.”

The event will be at Greenwood Christian Academy, 835 W. Worthsville Road, with a race course utilizing trails and roadways around the school.

Proceeds from the race will help support the Rotary’s own efforts to provide scholarships to Greenwood and Clark-Pleasant students, as well as helping raise money for the tuition fund for needy students at Greenwood Christian Academy, Lee said.

“A lot of people think that there are churches that sponsor the school, but it’s not. Students have to pay their own tuition, and there’s about a 30 percent free-and-reduced lunch rate,” she said. “So hopefully we’ll help lots of kids go to school.”

Registration can be done online at www.gcak12.org/rotary-5k-event, or the day of the race.