Teenagers from Arapahoe High School wearing bright orange T-shirts ran and gobbled up hundreds of hot dogs Sunday afternoon to help end hunger.
About 15 senior boys organized an event at deKoevend Park in Centennial with the goal of raising $10,000 to send 83 goats to impoverished communities in Africa.
The proceeds went to Heifer International, a nonprofit group that supplies livestock to communities in need throughout the world.
“We’re going to send them a fat check,” Graham Silver, 18, said.
“And a lot of goats,” added Donny Harlan, 18.
This year Harlan, Silver and three of their friends founded a nonprofit organization, Orange Crushing Hunger, to raise money to help end world hunger.
They collected about $12,000 by charging entrance fees for three events, a 5K run that had 106 participants, a 1K fun run and a 3K hot-dog-a-thon in which 96 runners jogged while eating three hot dogs at checkpoints along the way.
Senior student Sean Buczek, 18, was crowned hot dog king.
Non-runners, who were asked to make a donation, rocked out to live music by the local band tt Lester, played volleyball and visited the kissing booth, which at one point was manned by the school’s quarterback.
Several classmates said the event brought together the senior class, which had been divided over the color of T-shirts students wore to pep rallies and sporting events.
The Orange Crush group had worn orange shirts even though most seniors wore blue. Some saw the group’s insistence on orange as disruptive, classmate Kendra Reiter, 18, said. But the anti-hunger effort prompted many to wear orange.
“I think it’s a good thing that came from something out of hand,” Reiter said.
Planning and organizing wasn’t easy for the boys, whose event-coordinating experience was limited to tailgate parties.
“We didn’t think of a lot of the little things,” organizer Matt Croshal, 18, said. “We never imagined needing bathrooms.”
But family members helped them figure out what they needed and whom to contact.
Principal Ron Booth hopes that future seniors will continue the work of the organization.
“This is an example of the kind of passion, intelligence and initiative that high schoolers have today,” Booth said.
“I think this is going to start a tradition,” Reiter said, “and make us a legendary class.”
Staff writer Katherine Crowell can be reached at kcrowell@denverpost.com.
