May 25—BEMIDJI — Miniature ninjas swarmed the field behind Northern Elementary on Wednesday evening as around 240 children took part in the school's fourth annual Northern Ninja Run.

The winding half-mile course was filled with more than 20 obstacles for the students to climb through, crawl under and leap over as they made their way along the Timberwolf Trail behind the elementary school.

Complete with brightly colored attire and headbands in honor of the neon-themed event, the children set out grade by grade to complete the course.

Each challenge and obstacle was thought up and built by parent and staff volunteers, designed specifically for the preschool through fifth-grade students participating.

"We couldn't do all this without the parents' help and support, they help build the obstacles and staff comes out and help with registration and keeping the flow going out on the course," said Northern Elementary teacher and co-organizer of the event Heather Anderson. "This is our big end-of-the-year celebration and all the proceeds go to the PTO to help pay for school activities throughout the year."

As soon as the students made it to the finish line, sweaty and out of breath, many of them turned right back around and headed out to run the course all over again.

"This is always a really fun event, everybody shows up in full force and works and helps out," said Paul Daman, a teacher at Northern Elementary and co-event organizer. "We had one guy build seven obstacles this year and it's just so awesome to have all the help and support every year."