Boosterthon Fun Run

So the big thing around here now is the Boosterthon Fun Run School Fundraiser.  It's basically a company that comes to the local elementary schools and runs a nine day program that culminates in a Fun Run for the kids.  The kids are supposed to collect pledges from people willing to sponsor their run.  People can pledge a certain amount per lap or give a flat donation.

Because I am a PTA officer at our school, I was pretty involved with the Fun Run.  Of course, it wasn't too bad because Boosterthon sends a team of 3 people to your school and they do most of the work.  This aspect is very appealing to PTA volunteers who are always overwhelmed planning and executing huge events and activities.  I basically had to attend a few meetings and put up posters and bulletin boards.

Anyway, the kids were very, very excited about the Fun Run, Paige included.  She got some pledges from some supportive and generous family members.  Thank you so much!!!

Here are some pictures from the kick-off pep rally.  They do a great job getting the kids excited and involved.

After a week of team huddles and activities the Fun Run arrived.  The weather forecast predicted pouring rain, but fortunately it held off until the evening!  Parents were invited to come cheer their kids on.  They even gave us noise making clappers.  Boosterthon has a huge sound system and inflatable tunnel.  Basically, every class is announced and then they come running through the tunnel--it certainly lends to the excitement.  It was pretty cold, but the kids, who ran a little over 2 miles, felt fine.  The run was very well organized, with water stations, music and certain themes for each lap - such as pretend your in canoe and row yourself around or the superhero lap, put your arms up and fly!  The Fun Run was on October 30th, Paige's favorite lap was the Happy Birthday Lap.  She got called up, her birthday was announced and all the runners shouted, "Happy Birthday Paige!"

My two favorite runners!

Each kid was given a free t-shirt to wear during the run.  On the back of the t-shirt was a track with numbered spaces.  Each time a child finished a lap, their teacher would be there with a magic marker to mark off a space and this was how they kept track of how many laps every kid ran.

I'm sure that school PTA's can organize something like this on their own (pretty sure Dave's sister, Katie has done it.)  But honestly, its a big project and a lot of work and Boosterthon amps it up and has a whole character and fitness program that goes along with it, which makes it worth it to have them do it for us.

Our Fun Run was a huge success!  We earned over $23,000!  Wow!  We also collected over 95% of our pledges on the first request, that's probably a record.