We have 470 students in our school. One of our dads, who was tired of "catalog" sales did intense research on walk-a-thons. He claims schools have made 30-40,000. The first year, we made $9,000. The second year, we made 15.000. Our walk-a-thon was held on a Saturday morning (during football season which caused us to lose many participants) and we tried to get the whole family involved. We wrote to major companies, looking for raffle items (WWE, Compaq, IBM, etc). Most of our profits went back to the families, which got them excited about participating in the event the following year. We required a minimum in donations ($10.00) to participate. Each participant received a free Walk-a-thon t-shirt (These cost the PTO $4.00 per shirt because a local vendor made them for us at a discount). We also asked local businesses to pledge 100.00 and we printed their name on the back of each shirt (Minimum 30 business. Also, once we got a restaurant to commit, that was the only restaurant we used....once we got a nail/hair salon to commit, that was the only nail/hair salon we used.) This encouraged more people to participate because they felt they were getting something out of it. We had music playing in the backgroud and every so often we asked the walkers to do something specific as they walked around the track. For example, at the starting line they needed to limbo, another lap we asked them to walk backwards, etc. For every four laps they walked, they received a free item from the concession stand. We kept track by punching lap cards with hole punchers. For example, at four laps they received a hot dog. For eight laps, a bottle of water. 12 Laps= popcorn. We made money by families who attended to watch or cheer on the walkers. We also had the raffle as I mentioned before and a dunking booth. Our second year, we auctioned off the right to be the first to dunk the principal. We set up prizes for reaching certain donation levels as well. Everything from movie tickets for raising 50.00 to i-pods, to television sets for raising 1,000. Last year, we attempted to go back to the catalog sales and didn't do as well. I think if you get the timing right and have other events going on, you can keep students and families interested and they will spend the day. We are going back to this fundraiser by popular demand...however, we will work around the sports in town to increase participation.