Sanna;138349 wrote: We are having our first annual Walk-a-thon on Oct. 25th 2007. Iam the chair person for this fundraiser. The first thing we did was sent out a flyer looking for parent volunteers. We got quite a few back. If you give me your email address I could send you our flyers as samples for you to use. Instead of me trying to explain them all on here. WISH US LUCK!

We are looking to do our first walk a thon in the spring in conjunction with our newly formed fitness club (that is led by two amazing military dads who use their PT time to workout with the kids 2 days a week) Could you please email me your flyers as well so that I have somewhere to start from? My email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Thanks

Sanna, you did a fantastic job with the Walk-a-thon! You did one hell of a job from starting this thing up from scratch, to seeing it through to the end. Even though you encountered some speed bumps (you know who) you never let it phase you. Better yet, it looks like we've hit gold with Shannon, too!
Keep up the good work, it's appreciated by me and the rest of the parents here at Cottonwood.
Your president,
Brandon

p.s. We're looking for a President for next year... <wink wink> <nudge nudge> LOL

We learned of the Dance-a-thon through PELINKS4U - Elementary Physical Education (middle column near the bottom)

It's similar to a walk-a-thon with kids getting sponsored to participate. The PE Teacher holds the dance-a-thon during PE Class or it can be done as part of an event. It's run somewhat like Jumprope for Heart. The company has been helpful answering questions and providing info. 1-866-228-8443 Digital Dance-A-Thon

Our kids are over-the-top excited. They know they have to raise money to pay for the equipment and generate the dollars we need for school. The PE teacher will have the equipment to use in her PE Class. The kids' love of DDR seems to be the right ticket to success. Ask your kids about DDR and what they would do to get it for their school. Our board hasn't made a decision yet but if my kids are any indication we'll be dancing soon.

Meamoron2

I'm familiar with Dance Dance Revolution. How does the concept transfer to using it as a DJ for a dance? Sounds very interesting! Details please. Thanks.

Thanks for the great info. These events really seems to be so much more enjoyable for everyone. We are hoping to replace our catalog revenue so we might need to strategize more. We are also looking at doing a dance-a-thon with Dance Dance Revolution as the DJ. We are a middle school and it seems pretty tough to motivate this age group. The kids seem excited about the DDR option but we don't have any track record with this concept. With a walk-a-thon we at least have some history. Thanks again for the feedback; I think we all learn from this board.

Meamoron2

When I was President of the elementary PTO (K-5) we sponsored a walk-a-thon. We have close to 500 students, 250-300 of which participated and we raised between $9,000-$11,000. The chairperson was a real go getter and did tons of research! Every student that participated received a free t-shirt. On the back of each t-shirt were the names of 20 businesses in town who donated $100.00 each. I never thought the price would fly--however, the idea was using one of each type of business: i.e. one tanning salon, one hairdresser, one grocery store, one restaurant, etc. so that those businesses had 250 students walking around town with the name on their business on the back of their shirts proved to be a quick sell. We held the event on a Saturday at the high school track. For every mile the children walked, they earned a free item from the concession stand. First mile=free water; Second mile=free hot dog/hamburger; Third mile=free popcorn; etc. These items also were available for sale and were donated by local companies. Each child ask sponsors for flat fees or so much per lap. We then offered different prize levels--10.00-74.99 the free t-shirt; $75.00= 2 free movie tickets; 100.00=free kids bike all the way up to a tv-ipod-or video game system (depending on the fad of the time); We encouraged parents to ask employers to consider matching donations. In order to qualify for the prizes students must turn donations in by the appointed date. Each student was assigned a lap card that was numbered and hole punched by a parent volunteer each time they completed a lap or received one of the free items they earned. Families could come and go as they pleased throughout the day and were just asked to pick up/turn in their lap cards at the registration table each time they did so. After the committee tabulated the sponsor sheets, they were returned to the student to collect from their sponsors. Students who couldn't attend could still collect money from sponsors and be eligible for prizes. We played music as students walked the track and tried to be creative to keep families motivated and walking; i.e. limbo laps; backwards laps; skipping laps, etc; We also had a dunk tank were a silent auction was held to be the first student to dunk the principal! Then we had several brave teachers get into the tank. One year we held a raffle and the last year we added a bake sale table as well. We had a shaded area where celebrity readers read to students who needed a rest. We have a first aid station set up for blisters, etc. We held water balloon tosses and other field day type games. Lots of fun but not as profitable as the catalog sales where we raise 18,000.