HAVRE — Montana State University Northern hosted its second annual Bear Paw Beast Fun Run on Sunday Morning.
The event includes running (or walking) a mile loop around MSU-Northern’s campus. Along the route there are four different stations you can stop at for snacks: donuts, bacon, candy, and couch potato.
The race has three waves of runners. First off the line were people who wanted to run the loop. After them were the people who wanted to go at their own, slower pace, stopping at each station. Finally, the last group would go, characterized as people who were “just there for the food”.
“This is an annual event that we just started last year,” Amber Spring, Chair of MSU-Northern’s CARE team and Fun Run Coordinator said, “It is a fundraiser for our community center here on MSU-Northern’s campus, which houses our food pantry, our Dress for Success Program, and also donations for household goods.”
The Bear Paw Beast Fun Run is the first step in a long term goal for MSU-Northern to have a Bear Paw Festival taking place in the Bear Paw Mountains. To make it more exciting, a professor at the school has started trying to create the “Bear Paw Beast”, his own urban legend for the mountains.
To get in the spirit of the beast, runners were encouraged to dress up in a way that represents their inner beast. Costumes ranged from full clown regalia to football jerseys and even a ghilly suit.
“Costumes are encouraged,” Spring said, “I think it’s just a fun way to kind of see what people think of when they think about their inner beast, so we’ve allowed them to create whatever that might be.”
The fun run is a unique and accessible way to bring the MSU-Northern community closer during the last few weeks of warm weather.
“We're really trying to get our students engaged with the community and our community engaged with the students. And we figured, you know, getting them active, getting them on our beautiful campus is a great way to just have those two groups interact,” Spring said.
