Red and blue flags with supportive messages blew in the wind, decorating the entrance of the University of Illinois Arboretum on Sunday morning, where Colleges Against Cancer held its first ever charity 5K.

The registered student organization hosted the “Run Hard. Breathe Easy” 5K to gather community members together in support of cancer patients. The race started and ended at the entrance of the arboretum and went around the area twice. All the money raised at the event will be donated to the American Cancer Society.

Kaitlyn Kestel, vice president of Colleges Against Cancer, said the RSO chose the month November for the event date to coincide with lung cancer awareness month.

“In October, we do breast cancer awareness month which is huge,” Kestel said. “For November, since (events are) usually smaller, we tried to make it bigger this year.”

She also said a lot of people don’t have the heightened awareness of lung cancer like they have of breast cancer, but they are both very important. By organizing the race, Colleges Against Cancer wants to educate people about lung cancer and the harmful effects of smoking.

Christina Small, president of Colleges Against Cancer, said the 5K contributed to fighting cancer across the country because the charity benefitted the American Cancer Society.

“(American Cancer Society) does so much work for cancer in general, whether that would be lung cancer, or cancer research or helping patients who already have cancer,” Small said. “Any little thing we can do to help that is amazing.”

The race brought over 150 participants from the community together and raised about $1,000 for the American Cancer Society. Kestel said one of the big features of the race was that it was open to both University students and the rest of the community. She hopes the event will be bigger next year.

“These are all young adults who came out on a Sunday morning after the weekend to come run a 5K because they know it benefits such a great cause,” Kestel said. “That alone is such amazing thing to us.”

Despite the importance of fund-raising for cancer in the 5K, Colleges Against Cancer wanted to do more than just raise money. Matt Cronin, vice president of Colleges Against Cancer, who lost his grandmother to lung cancer on his birthday, said being supportive of cancer patients is much more meaningful than just fund-raising.

“We gave cancer patients care packages,” Cronin said. “We just put a flyer on there, just so they know we are out here, we are doing things, that we get involved.”

Zike can be reached at [email protected].