Phil, you would do your route somewhere on the schools property. Like around the building, in the parking lot, in the gym. Where you can have it secured. Also, the envelopes are for pledges that the children would get from local businesses and family members before the event. People would pledge or give a flat donation for how many laps a child could do. $1.00 per lap...child runs/walks 15 laps = $15.00. Most people now a days just does the flat donation. If anyone needs more info go to the Fundraising board and read mine about the Walkathon.
Aside from the fundraising aspect, this sounds like a great idea to me as it ties into physical fitness stuff the school disctrict is trying to push (anti-obesity/anti-juvenile diabetes).
I understand the idea of a walk-a-thon and I understand prize incentives, but a lot of the details are escaping me.
Where does a DJ fit in? I am imagining a walk around the neighborhood near the school where most of the time a DJ would not be heard.
What do you mean by a collection envelope with sponsors? Is it that the kids stop by local businesses on their walk to get donations? Is that why you were against laps? What was the purpose of the kickoff rally - what happened there?
We are a suburban elementary school in a mostly residential neighborhood where the business district is about 1.25 miles from the school. In some areas, lack of sidewalks are an issue so we would need to be careful about planning a route. I am trying to adapt the ideas to our situation so I am willing to hear whatever you say, raesmom and kmamom
We've got around 700 students, and when all was said and done we cleared about $15,000. We found that prizes were a big incentive, and for what we ended up laying out (around $200) it was well worth it. We also had an ipod mini donated. We did our winners based on number of donors. We had water handout points along the way, and also had some handouts for the kids that had been donated (book marks, stickers, pencils--that sort of thing). We had considered handing out water bottles (pre- filled) before the event but it was way more work so we nixed it.
1) Lined up a great DJ who REALLY cut us a break and organized a game plan thanks to pwalther from the boards. Devised a collection envelope with a sponsor sheet stapled on etcetera.
2) Met with principal to discuss proposed schedule and plans.
3) Sent info flyers to teachers and parents laying out what we were trying to achieve with the walk-a-thon and the anticipated schedule.
4) Had a kick-off rally two weeks before the packets were "due" (we kept getting them after the event). Students returned to classrooms and got a packet with flyer, collection envelopes etcetera.
5) We did NOT do it by laps. It's too time consuming and labor intensive, plus we disliked the idea of having to visit donors twice concerning the same event as well as depending on the kids to actually collect. We had people give a "flat" donation, with a $1 minimum.
6) The day of the event the kids walked for thirty minutes around a designated route (we don't have a track). We were going to make it 45 minutes, but felt it was too long (especially for the littler ones), plus 45 minutes easily turns into an hour, and our BOE made it very clear we were to have as little infringement on classroom time as possible.
We walked the kids by two grades each, though depending on the size of your school you could do it by class or all at once.
That's about it in a nutshell. If I think of anything else I'll post!
Details, details, details. Please email me and let me know how you accomplished this. $16,000 that blows my mind. Would love to know everything from what kind of fliers you sent out, to the timeline, to what sponsors you went after, to what kind of prizes etc.
