SEARCY — Zombies will soon be on the loose in downtown Searcy — zombies who are running for a cause, that is.
On Saturday, participants young and old can take part in the Zombie Fun Run, a fundraiser for Searcy High School’s Environmental and Spatial Technology class.
Hunter Ingle, a junior at Searcy High School who helped organize this year’s event, said money raised will go toward software and hardware for EAST projects, including A Walk Through History, which the class has been working on since January.
“I’m looking forward to seeing all of the participants going around understanding what we do here at EAST,” he said.
Searcy High School’s EAST program received a grant from BHP Billiton Petroleum earlier this year to fund A Walk Through History in downtown Searcy.
Work on the project started in January, and EAST facilitator Rinda Hall said the project is expected to be finished by the end of the year with the help of profits from the run.
“The kids have done 95 percent of the work,” Hall said. “I’ve played kind of an administrative role.”
The high school’s project involves building a new walking trail with an interactive element in the downtown area for the Searcy Parks and Recreation Department.
Visitors to the trail can scan a Quick Response code with their smartphones when they get to certain historic homes, buildings and monuments within the city of Searcy, and the code will send the visitors to a website with information about the building.
Ingle said he’s been in the EAST class since his freshman year at Searcy High School and looks forward to showing off the work his class has done on the project.
“[We hope visitors] will understand the historic aspect of our project,” he said.
Hall said she is proud of the work and time her students have put into this project and said a website for the walk is slated to be up and running by the time of the race.
“We hope to make [this run] an annual event,” Hall said. “We want the theme to change every year.”
The race will begin at 4 p.m. on the courthouse square in Searcy, and registration forms are available at www.searcyschools.org.
Registration is $25 per person, but if participants sign up with a group of at least eight people, the registration fee is reduced to $10 per person, Hall said.
Hall said she and her students are hoping for 200 to 300 people to run the race.
Staff writer Lisa Burnett can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or lburnett@arkansasonline.com.