More than 2,000 fill the streets for another successful running of Boogie the Bridge

They came wearing bejewelled glasses, camouflage, coloured hair, painted faces, tutus and even a Batman costume.

Regardless of the accessories, however, they almost all wore the tell-tale red T-shirt that showed their participation in this year’s CFJC Boogie the Bridge Sunday morning that got more than 2,000 people involved in a healthy community event that also raises money for charity.

Organizer Jo Berry said the sun coming through the clouds at 8:15 a.m. — just 15 minutes before the first runners left the starting gate — made this year’s event that much brighter.

“Just to see all that sea of red today,” she said of the bright Boogie T-shirts that runners wear on their one-, five-, 10- or 21- kilometre routes.

“It’s going really well.”

In 1998, Berry lost her mother. She gathered 62 other women to create an all-female run, walk or stroll and the money raised went to a program for women.

Boogie grew into a community event, with the Kamloops Daily News taking on the corporate name sponsorship in 2002 and culminating in the most participants ever in 2013 with 2,464 turning out.

After cheering on the 10-k participants from the start line Sunday, Berry said this year’s count is down slightly from that all-time high, at 2,315. CFJC-TV stepped up to be the corporate name sponsor for the event in the wake of the KDN’s closure in January.

“It’s such a community event,” Berry said.

Besides the change in sponsorship, this year’s Boogie included more entertainment on the route and the usual pumped-up energy that comes with crowds gathering to loud, rocking music before heading out on a mass run/walk through the city streets.

This year, two charities will benefit from Boogie: The Kamloops Family Resource Society’s Family Tree Family Centre and the Canadian Mental Health Association Clubhouse.