Two years ago, when Kori Tate told her mom, Sonya Fields, she wanted to do something a little different with the money Fields sets aside for each of her four children’s birthdays, Fields was not surprised.

Birthdays have always been an opportunity for the kids to use their imagination.

The idea, Kori told her mom, was a “Color Run” (a race/walk where participants are splattered with non-toxic paints along the course) to draw attention to school bullying, something Kori witnessed at her school, New Hope Elementary.

Kori’s Color Run was held at the East Columbus Gym on Sept. 7, 2019, drawing a few dozen kids for the event. The broader message went far beyond Kori’s friends and those who attended. More than 100 kids signed pledge cards saying they would not participate in bullying and would intervene or tell an adult when they saw someone being bullied.

“I think it worked,” Tate said Thursday, almost two years after the Color Run. “I haven’t seen any bullying at school since then.”

Her mom assumed the Color Run was a one-year idea and that her daughter would find another creative way to celebrate her birthday in the years to come.

“Honestly, I thought it was just a one-time event when we were preparing for it,” Fields said. “It was something fun, something new. But everyone was so encouraging and she got so much good feedback encouraging her to keep it up and stay active and remember where her heart is.”

Last year, COVID-19 prevented Kori from having her birthday Color Run, but on Sept. 5, from noon to 5 p.m. at Sim Scott Park, she will celebrate her 13th birthday with Kori’s 2K21 Color Run. The purpose this year is to unite Columbus residents against the violence that plagued the city in recent months.

“This year, with everything that’s been happening, I thought I could use the Color Run to bring people together against the violence,” said Kori, now a seventh-grader at New Hope Middle School. The family lives in the part of east Columbus that is inside the Lowndes County School District.

As it was two years ago when Kori was inspired to hold a Color Run against bullying after seeing some of her schoolmates being bullied, personal experience also inspired this year’s event.

“Recently, our next door neighbor lost a son to violence,” Fields said. “His name was Quinshawn Lucious and he was friends with Kori’s big brother. The two boys grew up with the same dream. They played basketball together and were very close. He came from a praying family, an incredible family. He was just a well-mannered, kind, respectable young man. So when he was killed we were all just devastated.”

Three men, two of them teens, have been charged in the July 9 murder of Lucious, 22.

The Color Run will be a tribute to Lucious’ memory, but will also focus on getting young men, who may be prone to a violent lifestyle, to amend their ways, Tate said.

“We wanted to do something to remember Quinshawn and his family who went through it,” Kori said. “But we also want to make peace, so that everybody can get the feeling that they can get back on the right path, so that everyone can get a chance to see their future. That’s what I hope comes from this.”

In 2019, Kori and her mom were content with a Color Run that would attract a small group of friends and neighbors, But with widespread violence throughout the community, they hope this year’s event will attract people from throughout the city, regardless of their color or background.

The City of Columbus Parks and Recreation Department agreed to help out by providing the color paints needed, which Fields said was a major expense.

“We are accepting donations this year, whether it’s snacks or bottled water, or lending us coolers that we will tag and return or volunteers to throw paint and help out with things,” she said. “We’re going to have masks and social distancing and hand-sanitizers. We’ve had plenty of masks, but we’d like to have more hand-sanitizers.”

Fields said the biggest thing needed is for people to show up and participate.

“We want our city to be united and come together because, despite all this violence, we are a great community,” she said. “It doesn’t matter your age, your race, how much money you have. We want everybody to come out to show that, yes, we can be united and help stop this violence.”

To make donations, people can call Sonya at 662-245-9600.

The event is focused on sending a message about violence, but as it did in 2019, it also serves to provide another message: One person, even a kid, can make a difference in his or her community.

“Everybody can do something to make things better and make a difference,” Kori said. “A lot of times, it’s just one person standing up and saying something, and then other people join in and it grows and grows. Anybody can be that one person.”

Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].