OSU alum brightening music fests one elementary gym activity at a time
OSU grad brings back the best day of gym class to Ohio State and beyond
A circle of happy humans gather in the Oval around a huge rainbow circle. The strips of color wave up and down as blue stress balls dance through the sky. A toothy grin spreads across each person’s face as Empire of the Sun’s “Alive” plays in the background.
Meet Roochute, a parachute with a purpose.
Roochute came to life at Bonnaroo, a summer music festival in Manchester, Tennessee in 2014, but it was in the works long before that.
“It started off as a simple idea to has as much fun as possible with as much people as possible,” explained Ron Holgado, an OSU graduate and the man behind the Roochute.
Holgado and his friends were on the internet one day when the seed of Roochute was planted. They found a meme that said, “the best day of gym class,” with a picture of a beloved rainbow parachute.
“We immediately started sharing stories from when we were kids,” Holgado said, “and I got to think why is this just a memory? There are no opportunities in the adult life or the ‘real world’ like this.”
So, with a new rainbow parachute in tow, Holgado and his friends were off to Bonnaroo.
Between ordering the chute and heading down to Roo, Holgado attended a silent meditation retreat in Illinois to find his purpose in life after graduating and deciding not to pursue med school.
“At the retreat, instead of finding my way within the healthcare field, I kept seeing the idea of the parachute at Bonnaroo.”
Holgado decided to color outside of the lines and now approaches the medical field through using the Roochute to promote mental health awareness.
“There have been many parachutes at festivals, but we are the first to tie a message to the parachute,” Holgado said, “Though I’m not in a hospital, I am still helping people and in a way healing them in nontraditional ways through play, laughter, and being outside.”
In the past, Roochute has started GoFundMe pages to purchase more parachutes to be donated to places all over the globe—like an orphanage school in Ghana last year.
“This means so much more than one parachute,” Holgado said, “the things we do in America really transcend culture or being a kid in the U.S., it’s just fun.”
In addition to Bonnaroo, Roochute has been to Lollapalooza, Fashion Meets Music Festival, Coachella, Independence Day, and local festivals and events, with new ones on the agenda for this summer. For more information, visit facebook.com/roochute.
Colleen FortneyBROUGHT TO YOU BY
