NSU’s sixth annual Shark Shuffle, a 5K run/walk, will take place on Oct. 13 in front of the Alvin Sherman Library.
All students who finish the race will be eligible to win $500 in a raffle by submitting their racing number. At least 20 students will win. These monetary prizes are donations from the deans of all NSU colleges who donated from their school’s budget.
Associate Director of Campus Recreation and Director of Shark Shuffle Marcela Sandigo, said the theme of the run/walk is Raising Dollars for Active Scholars and promotes health and wellness.
Mirna Gonzalez, operations manager at the Division of Clinical Operations, was co-director of the event from 2006 to 2009 and is now on the planning committee. She said the purpose of the run is to encourage students and community members to think about their health.
They event has had about 250 participants during each of the last few years. Gonzales expects this year to attract about 800 people, including participants, volunteers and security officers.
NSU employees are also eligible to win prizes by raffling their racing numbers. These include round-trip airline tickets to anywhere in the U.S., a Galaxy S and a one-year membership to the RecPlex.
Community members can enter a raffle to win four Miami Dolphins tickets and parking passes for the Oct. 20 Dolphins game.
Douglas Flemons, professor of family therapy at the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, created the Shark Shuffle with Robert Oller, CEO of the Division of Clinical Operations, and is an avid runner himself. Flemons directed the run for its first five years.
Flemons said, “The purpose of [establishing the race] in the first place was to get people thinking, ‘Maybe I need to start training so I can go and do that 5K walk or run and then that can become a part of how I conduct my life.’”
Sandigo said, “I really encourage people to walk it so they can kind of get that energy and feel that sense of a 5K and maybe that will trigger something for you to train for a 5K.”
This year, the Shark Shuffle was organized with the help of a committee made up of Flemons, Oller and Sandigo, along with Elizabeth Swan, athletic training program director; Suzanne Ferriss, professor in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences’ Division of Humanities, and philanthropist Ronnie Oller, Robert’s wife. Committee members are known as Shark Wranglers and prepared for this event for 10 months. They strived to get more students involved while encouraging physical fitness.
Julio Perez, graduate assistant for Housing Services and Off-campus Housing and former graduate assistant for Campus Recreation, ran in last year’s Shark Shuffle and plans to participate this year. He said the event is a great way for students to get involved and potentially benefit financially.
“Being able to make sure that they have an opportunity to compete, that opportunity can lead into potentially helping further along their scholarship endeavors,” Perez said.
Participants can pick up their race packets, which include their race number and T-shirt, at the RecPlex’s front desk in the Don Taft University center on Oct.10 or 11.
The run/walk begins at 7:30 a.m. and the awards ceremony is at 8:45 a.m. The entry fee for NSU students, staff, alumni and family and University School students is $12. For other participants, early registration online is $20 and on-site registration is $25. Registration will be open until 2 p.m. on Oct. 12. To register, visit beta.active.com/davie-fl/running/races/shark-shuffle-2013.
