We have a walk-a-thon every year. We use the bus loop to walk laps. We divide it into 2 groups spliting younger grades from older grades, one group in the morning, other in the afternoon. We have tees made thru generous support of a local bank. Each walker gets a lap card pinned to their back and for each lap volunteers give a tally mark, it is an easy way to have a record when finished. We have volunteers set up on a 4 corners of the loop and each set takes different classes so everyone is not stopping for marks at the same spot. We play music as they walk and take drink and banana/apple breaks (donations from a grocery store and Mcdonalds). A week+ before the event the papers go home to get lap pledges or a staright donation amount. We have a big kick off assemlbly prior to the event and after. We award prizes (donation and PTO money is used)and for every $5 u brign in your name goes in the bin to win prizes. We have also had seperate bins for different prizes so they can choose what they want to try to win. We base prizes on the years theme or just activities that fit with a walk-a-thon idea like sporty things etc. Hope this helps! It is a great fundraisers for all of our local schools!! paretns are also invited to come and walk laps with their kids if they wnat to. Some moms come with stollers to walk with their older child. One last thing, we set up an area with fun activities to give a break from walking, football toss, hula hoops, etc and they have a 15 minute time per class and they earn 5 laps for that time (not all schools do this). Its fun to have a mascot thruout the event and assemblies.

We have a walk-a-thon every year. We use the bus loop to walk laps. We divide it into 2 groups spliting younger grades from older grades, one group in the morning, other in the afternoon. We have tees made thru generous support of a local bank. Each walker gets a lap card pinned to their back and for each lap volunteers give a tally mark, it is an easy way to have a record when finished. We have volunteers set up on a 4 corners of the loop and each set takes different classes so everyone is not stopping for marks at the same spot. We play music as they walk and take drink and banana/apple breaks (donations from a grocery store and Mcdonalds). A week+ before the event the papers go home to get lap pledges or a staright donation amount. We have a big kick off assemlbly prior to the event and after. We award prizes (donation and PTO money is used)and for every $5 u brign in your name goes in the bin to win prizes. We have also had seperate bins for different prizes so they can choose what they want to try to win. We base prizes on the years theme or just activities that fit with a walk-a-thon idea like sporty things etc. Hope this helps! It is a great fundraisers for all of our local schools!! paretns are also invited to come and walk laps with their kids if they wnat to. Some moms come with stollers to walk with their older child. One last thing, we set up an area with fun activities to give a break from walking, football toss, hula hoops, etc and they have a 15 minute time per class and they earn 5 laps for that time (not all schools do this). Its fun to have a mascot thruout the event and assemblies.

Our first-ever is Friday,Sept 29, but we're building off the knowledge of another school. There's loads of details to share, but essentially...

The Fun Run is a pledge-per-lap "walk a thon" fundraiser. We started with a pep rally to get the kids excited and to tell them what to expect. That day, they got a colored pledge form and overview info to take home. They have 3 weeks to collect pledges. NOTE: this concept works ONLY if your PTO is a real 501c3 because your supporters are making a cash donation. It can only be considered a charitable (i.e. deductible) dontation if your PTO is 501c3.

On Run day, we have a schedule to have no more than 4 classes run at a time. Our track is outside, marked in the grass, 1/10 mile. Younger kids run for 10 minutes, older for 15. Each time they pass their class corner on the track, they get a rubberband on their wrist to count laps. At the end of the time, they all proceed to tables where parent volunteers count their rubberbands and record the # of laps. Then the kids get a healthy snack and water and return to class.

We also give every kid and teacher a color tshirt at the start of the day. We ran a t-shirt logo contest within our school last spring.

At the end of the Run day, we give each kid a collection envelope marked with their # laps. They have 2 weeks to return $. We have prizes based on several criteria, including a small prize for returning the envelope on time, even if it's empty.

We're up to our eyeballs in the details right now...including trying to figure out how to use all 124 parent volunteers who have already sent in their volunteer form!! We hope to have similar financial support!

Hi All,

I would like to hold a "fun run" for our elementary school and would like present my idea fully ready to go.

Has anyone here held a fun run or participated in the planning of one? If so, I would really appreciate your input and ideas.

Thanks!
T