The early registration deadline for a race to raise money to help supply Christmas presents to underprivileged families is Friday.

The HON 1191: Honors First-Year Seminar class is having a Holiday Hustle 5K on Dec. 1 at 10 a.m.

By registering before the deadline, all participants will receive a T-shirt. People are still allowed to register, but will not receive one.

Registration for the race is $15 for people 12 and older, $10 for children 6 to 11, and free for those under 5.

T-shirts are provided by the registration fee before Friday.

Andrew Donsbach, one of the organizers of the event, said the money from the race will go to benefit the One Stop Community Christmas charity.

During the holiday season, Donsbach said One Stop Community Christmas works to provide clothing, food and toys to families in the Coles, Clark, Cumberland, Edgar, Shelby and Douglas counties.

Donsbach, a freshman art major, said the group of presidential scholars from the class of 2016 organized the race because they wanted to help with a charity.

“Our main purpose is to raise money to support them in their efforts of distributing those items,” Donsbach said.

He said they chose this organization after talking with Rachel Fisher, the director of student community service, about all the local charities.

“We asked her where she saw a need in the community, because a lot of us are from out of town and don’t really know what organizations get a lot of support and which ones could use more support,” Donsbach said.

He said when they were choosing the fundraiser they wanted to stick with the holiday theme and chose the Holiday Hustle.

The race will start at Old Main and go east to Seventh Street.

Runners will go south on Seventh, left on Johnson Avenue and right on Ninth Street.

He said the race is open to everyone.

“We have people registered from the age of 75 down to the age of 6,” Donsbach said.

Registration forms are online at https://sites.google.com/site/eiuholidayhustle5k/.

He said he is looking forward to seeing the people who come out to support the cause.

“We’ve been meeting about it for a couple of months now and we are looking forward to seeing people come out and support,” Donsbach said.

Samantha McDaniel can be reached at 581-2812 or slmcdaniel@eiu.edu.