Man, people on Maui love talking about Maui’s recent Color Run. Sure, about 5,700 people (according to the Mar. 31 Maui News) enjoyed running in it while volunteers threw multi-colored corn starch on them, but I’ve been amazed how many people have been talking about our little April 2 story on the disparity between the $8,000 The Color Run donated to Maui United Way and the approximately $250,000 race organizers took in.
“Everyone was there for their own entertainment, and United Way made a few bucks,” Dave Heard commented on the MauiTime Facebook page. “How much of all the mainland acts that come to the MACC donate? I think it’s all in the way we look at the situation…..”
Others on our Facebook page took a less charitable view. “Amazing that people will come out to make mainland organizers rich but when it comes to important POLITICAL efforts, they couldn’t care less,” Karen Chun.
About the only people who didn’t want to talk about the money involved in The Color Run’s recent Maui event were The Color Run organizers themselves. On April 1, I emailed them three questions:
• Could they confirm The Maui News‘ estimate of how many took part in the run?
• How much the organization donated to the Maui United Way?
• How much did the event take in as a whole?
They were simple, otherwise innocuous questions. An organizer, who only signed her name “Annie,” finally responded to me on Saturday, April 5. Here’s her response, in its entirety:
“Hi Anthony! Thanks for your email! I am so sorry but we are not allowed to release those numbers. We are happy to help you with other inquiries though! Have a COLORFUL day!”
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