We're still in the process of finalizing the decisions, and as a result our playground doesn't have a "face" yet. I've the feeling that that will help a bit in our struggles.

We're coming to find that this one last decision concerning the walk-a-thon is merely a symptom of a much larger problem :eek: . You know how it is, you talk to someone sbout the situation, then suddenly all these stories that are of the same vein start coming out of the woodwork. Some I found sort of alarming, in that the administration in the school is apparently too busy with things that, while related to their job, should be delegated and not micromanaged, and that personal feelings are beginning to rule things that should be decided rationally.

We've been attempting to meet with our principal, but we continually get the brush-off, and only when pressed did we get granted a meeting--9 days later and a half hour before school lets out .I understand being busy, but if our superintendent who is in charge of 8 schools can return a call the same day, and arrange for a meeting within three (unless he's out of town or particularly busy), I've the feeling something isn't right when the principal is SO busy that they can't even return a call within TWO WEEKS.

Don't know if this will help or not, but here's my two cents... First, do you have a lighted area that you could do it in the evening? Would that work better to do it say on a Friday evening? We are on our second walkathon coming up in a few weeks. We run ours a little differently. We hand out the "sponsor forms" about a month to a month and a half in advance. They are sponsored on their ability to participate. Not by the lap or time or whatever. We have pre-k through fifth grade so neither of those option would have been good for such a wide gap. Pre-k-ers would have been hard pressed to complete four laps on our 1/4 mile track, whereas 5th graders wouldn't have as big of a problem with it. Also pre-k-ers might not be able to keep their attention on it as easily. So we do a flat donation. However much you want to sponsor a child for based on the fact that they will walk that day. Each child participant gets a tshirt. Last year we did a health fair in conjunction with it in May. This year we are doing a family fun day (carnival type of atmosphere)along with the walkathon in June. We will have games, food, spin art, face painting, moon bounces, dunk tank, etc. set up on the pavement around the outside of the track. Our walkathon is in a few weeks, we had a build date of 5/15 for our new playground, so we wanted to collect the money early to get it into our playground build fun. So our monies are already collected and counted from the walkathon. We made something along the lines of $9000 last year and $6000 this year. I think it was less this year because we did so many fundraisers to meet our goal for the playground. That is not counting any money we make on the day of at the carnival part. I agree with you that doing it on a Saturday is better than not doing it at all. We did ours last year for a six hour time frame 9am-3pm. This year we are narrowing that down to 10-2. It was just too long of a day for all of the "full time" volunteers. We figured that even with ball games/recitals/graduations and whatnot, four hours was long enough for people to "sqeeze it in." On a side note, have you set a build date for your playground? We found that having that goal date really gave everybody an incentive to have the money by that date. And they were much more understanding of having to do things in a timely manner and more tolerant of doing so many fundraisers. If you have any questions at all about the way we ran our walkathon, I would gladly share our paperwork on how we did it. Just send me an email. I don't always remember exactly where I posted last (hmm, I wonder if I am flighty because I have too much on my mind or if I am just a total scatter brain??? ), so I don't always get back to posts in a timely manner, but emails are always answered! Good luck!

Baggo? Cornhole? Explanation please! This one sounds good!

Our School District has a "policy" that children are not allowed to participate in "Fundraising" during curriculum time. If we hold a book fair during the day it can be visited by parents or parents can have lunch with their child then bring them to the book fair but only during lunch/recess or before or after school. I like the idea of incorporating the walk-a-thon in PE time. Maybe you could have it broken down by lunch times and recess if your school has recess.

A walk-a-thon sounds like fun.

Do any of you play cornhole (also called baggo) where you live?

Our Dad's Club held 4 cornhole tournaments this year and made and easy $3000 at each one after expenses and prizes. We have enough room for 64 teams (128 people) and charge $30 per couple. Beer, pop and snacks are available to purchase (ahem, we make A LOT of money on beer sales). We also have a nice door prize (the last one was tickets to Kentucky Motor Speedway) and we do Split the Pot twice. It's held on a Saturday evening in the gym and cafeteria and people show up to watch and hang out even if they aren't playing.

Fun and popular fundraiser with little work.

You guys are the best! and YES, memorial bricks are on the "to do" list!

If you've been following the boards you know my woes--the principal isn't evil, but she's NO help either! We tried all sorts of ways to schedule it, including gym class, and with that one we were told the gym teachers were worried it was going to become an annual event for them, and "is this what gym class was going to turn into?" :confused: We suggested field day, and got the same response, as well as during lunch hours. Apparently someone has a bug up their a*s about this particular topic.

I feel trying it during a half day after school, or on a Saturday is better than nothing at all, but then I have others whom I work closely with that sport a different opinion, so now I'm just trying to walk through the firestorm without getting burned--Yeah..RIGHT!