Music blasting, smiling faces and pancakes, what more could anyone ask for on a Saturday morning? 

The 14th annual Jaywalk 5k took place Sept. 17 with more than 70 families registered. The run/walk is put on by the Creighton Students Union (CSU) and supports Jesuit Academy, a local all-boys middle school in North Omaha.

Jaywalk Coordinator and Heider College of Business senior Nick Handrich said that the students have been working on the event for a while. 

“We’ve been preparing since the summer; we did a couple hours every week,” Handrich said.  “I want to say May is when we started planning everything because it takes a while to get the city routes and the police to come.” 

The course this year changed to include more of Creighton’s campus.

“This is a new year for the course,” Handrich said. “It has always started in Deglman Circle and then we thought it would be cool to incorporate more of the campus and we wanted to have the finish on the Mall. So with that, we decided we’d do a big loop around Creighton and then we’d come back and then you’d go to Morrison, we wanted people to come back up the Mall and finish like that.”

All the advanced planning paid off for the Jaywalk team. College of Arts and Sciences freshman Alec Harrington, first across the line heard about the event in a variety of ways.

“I saw a poster around the campus… I got the email about it too, which was really nice, and I saw it at the Skutt event center,” Harrington said. “It was very well published and it looked like something that I could get behind.” 

CSU College of Arts and Sciences Representative and senior Julia Neppel explained the bond between Jesuit institutions that Jaywalk builds. 

“It’s great to have an event that can bring all of these different schools together and foster that sense of the same Jesuit values and mission that we practice and preach at all of our schools,” Neppel said. 

Handrich echoed the importance of the interaction between Jesuit Academy, Creighton Prep and Creighton. 

“I think [Jaywalk] helps the whole Jesuit community between Creighton, Creighton Prep and Jesuit Academy to have an event together because presidents are here from every school, students are here, Creighton Prep’s football team is here, it’s just a cool community thing,” Handrich said.

Harrington, who ran in Jaywalk with his family, also appreciated the community aspect of the race.

“What I like is that everyone is involved in it, it’s more of its own community, it’s inviting not just to students, but families and people outside of [Creighton],” Harrington said. 

Though Harrington does not know the full details of the charity behind Jaywalk, he still supported it. 

“As for Jesuit Academy, I’m not 100 percent certain what that entails, but if Creighton students are willing to do something toward a certain organization I bet that whatever it is they do is always going to be a good cause,” Harrington said. 

Nepple explained that it is advantageous to have the race on Family and Homecoming Weekend.  

“We love having it during Family Weekend because a lot of parents come out,” Nepple said. “It’s a great family event, and we had lots of dogs this year too.” 

In addition to dogs, Nepple mentioned that pancakes are a typical selling point for the event. 

“Usually my plug starts with, ‘You get a T-shirt and there are pancakes,’ but the enthusiasm of the kids keeps you going through the whole race,” Nepple said. “I’ve been volunteering for quite a few years, bad weather or great weather, it’s always a great time.”

With a clear and sunny morning to cross the finish line, Harrington was able to do exactly as Nepple said — find breakfast and a T-shirt.  

“[Crossing the finish line] was pretty good, my first thought was, ‘Oh sweet, pancakes,’ but beyond that, I got to cheer on more people and see how many people got involved with it,” Harrington said.  

Harrington hopes to continue to race in the coming years and suggests that anyone who wants to have a social Saturday morning should participate.  

“Overall if you’re looking for a reason to exercise, or something to get to know a very interesting community, or to get to know people a lot better, Jaywalk is a good source for that,” Harrington said.