[media-credit name=’ERIN KEEFFE/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]The University of Wisconsin Homecoming Committee held the 20th annual Charity Run/Walk to raise money for the Dean of Students' Crisis Fund and encourage excitement among UW students for homecoming week on Library Mall Sunday.

UW homecoming committee member Lisa Shen said the five-kilometer run and three-kilometer walk — held on the lakeshore path and ending at Library Mall — was sponsored in part by numerous businesses on campus to raise money for the fund.

"We have a lot of sponsors and all of the runners will receive [food] and T-shirts for participating in the run," Shen said, adding a majority of the participants running are part of the Greek system, residence halls or student organizations.

Run/Walk chair Colleen Prebelich said the structure of the Dean of Students Crisis Fund is similar to a "loan system."

"This program is sort of like a loan system because when students need help paying for their tuition or if they urgently had to go home, they could be assisted by these funds," Prebelich said.

Many participants stressed the importance of the charitable aspect of the run, although some ran or walked for other reasons.

"It was a nice fall day to support your organization, get some homecoming points, and get a great workout where your friends can stick together," Wisconsin Alumni Student Board member Jenny Wilke Law said.

Law noted the WASB has won homecoming for student organizations the last fourteen years and hopes to repeat again this year.

First-place female runner and UW graduate student Kelley Hess said graduate students and alumni fully support their school and want to remain involved on campus.

"It is good to see that the university is contributing to the community and at the same time we are celebrating alumni returning and football successes," Hess said.

According to Alpha Chi Omega freshmen Liz Hutchison and Katie Schmit, many members of the Greek community attended the Run/Walk hoping to earn participation points for their fraternity or sorority.

"This event will help us have a jump start on homecoming week," Schmit said.

Chipotle general manager and UW alum Alexandra Hae Semeyer said the eatery has sponsored the Run/Walk for two years and claimed the event has been very successful.

"We are giving out chips and guacamole because it is for a great cause and it is also wonderful marketing for our company because we get our food into mouths of hungry people," Hae Semeyer said.

Hae Semeyer added Chipotle will be sponsoring various other events during homecoming week.

The top runners finished the five-kilometer run in less than twenty minutes with the three-kilometer walkers and most everyone else finishing the race at different times throughout the afternoon.

First-place winner Jim Reichling said he participated in the race to get in shape for the UW running club.

"This race sounded like fun and the UW running club will be doing another race next weekend to support another cause so I wanted to get back in shape," Reichling said.