BUTLER TWP — Two additional wacky obstacles were added to the 2-mile course at the 6th annual Tuff Tornado Run on Saturday, Sept. 28 at Alameda Park, and the runners and walkers who participated were glad to endure them for a good cause.

Audray Muscatello-Yost, the event’s founder and coordinator, explained that all proceeds from the run benefit the Golden Tornado Scholastic Foundation.

The foundation provides the Butler Area School District with the Kids Weekend Backpack food program, creative teaching grants, technology upgrades, and funds for educational programs throughout the district.

The Tuff Tornado Run sees runners and walkers of all ages traverse 23 obstacles as they make their way along the course, which is set up in the area of the Odd Fellows pavilion and throughout the woods at Alameda Park.

Participants must face the noodle free-for-all, hay bale jump, tire crawl, fence climb, pipe slide, and other obstacles along the course.

Before splashing their way through the mud run — which was created thanks to the Butler Bureau of Fire’s 2,000 gallons of water sprayed into a pit of dirt — the runners and walkers are pelted with slime in the slime run, and shot with powder in five colors in the color run.

Luckily, the two obstacles following the mud run are the foam run and car wash.

Muscatello-Yost said muddy, slimy, discolored participants are dowsed with soap suds in the foam run, then water in the new car wash obstacle, where they can then rinse off in a large rectangle hung with colorful pool noodles that squirt water.

Muscatello-Yost said volunteers lie in wait in the Alameda woods with cannons that shoot a total of 100 pounds of colored powder onto participants.

“I have sun glasses for the little kids so it doesn’t get in their eyes,” she said.

In addition to the car wash, the other new obstacle is the treasure hunt, in which participants plunge a hand into a bucket of either corn or rice to find a small treasure.

The remaining obstacles are the tire run, tree-trunk hop, V ninja warrior, pail of water, Army crawl, laser maze, sack race, rope bridge, mini wall, and hay bale climb.

“It’s so family oriented,” Muscatello-Yost said of the event. “Everyone is laughing and smiling and everyone is having fun.”

Tammy Schuey, Butler Eagle general manager, said the newspaper serves as a platinum sponsor of the Tuff Tornado Run because it is a family event and it supports the Golden Tornado Scholastic Foundation’s vital programs.

“It’s important for us to be a strong community partner,” Schuey said.

Participants took off from the starting line in groups of 50 beginning at 11 a.m. The Tuff Tornado Run raised more than $15,000 for the foundation last year.

Legions of volunteers are required to set up and man the obstacle stations, and many are students in the Butler Area School District.

Muscatello-Yost said 50 students helped set up Friday evening, and 50 more manned the obstacles on Saturday.

The students were members of Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, National Honor Society, Junior National Honor Society and the Starfish program.

A DJ, two food trucks and pre-run stretching by Burn Boot Camp of Butler also were featured at the event.

Jenley Birch, who is on the foundation board of directors, said Muscatello-Yost saw a similar event while visiting her daughter 7 years ago in Rhode Island, and presented the idea to the foundation board for consideration.

Of course, she also offered to organize the multifaceted event, Birch said.

“Audray is the most generous person I know,” Birch said.

Birch and a number of others from the foundation or Kids Weekend Backpack program were on hand Saturday to man obstacle stations.

Collins Kramer, 10, who is a fifth-grader at Connoquenessing Elementary School, participated in his second Tuff Tornado Run on Saturday.

He named the color run as his favorite obstacle.

“People are just, like, hitting you with colors and stuff,” Collins said. “It’s fun.”

Amy Antol traveled from New Castle to bring her two children and their friend to the run.

“The kids are always looking for something fun to do, and we’re just along for their ride,” she said.

She hoped her kids enjoyed the slimy, muddy, foamy event.

“A whole lot of mess and a lot of memories,” Antol said of what she hoped her kids would get out of the run.

Megan Tinklepaugh, a guidance counselor at Butler Intermediate High School, said her young daughters thought the race looked like fun, but she admitted to dreading the mud pit.

“I brought towels, clean clothes and seat covers,” she said.

Natalia Niemeyer, 10, who is a fourth-grader at McQuistion Elementary, said her mom, brother and sister came because the event looked fun.

Natalia looked forward to being slimed, while her brother, Rex, 8, said the run would be good exercise. He looked forward to “the slime and also the mud” as he watched the first 50 runners take off from the starting line.

Their older sister, Raeleigh, an eighth-grader at Butler Intermediate High, volunteered Friday night to help set up the obstacles.

“I’m dreading the tire crawl,” Raeleigh said. “It looks hard.”

Brian White, Butler Area superintendent, called the Tuff Tornado Run “an incredible community event with tremendous volunteers.”

He enjoyed seeing so many students volunteering at the event.

“They get a true sense of helping others,” White said.

He completed the run a few years ago, but acted as a volunteer on Saturday.

“My personal favorite is the mud at the end,” White said. “I like to watch the people go through the mud.”