We are using Race for Education and have our race in 3 days. We have 480 students and have raised $30,000 so far and we are still counting!! The RFE company does give you hints and instructions that you might not think of on your own. We found them very helpful. Just my 2 cents Good luck to everyone NO MATTER what you end up doing! It is a lot of work but the kids are so excited for Friday!

On the same line, one school does something called the Wild KAT Challenge (Knowledge A Thon). Basically the kids have questions for each grade level. The students get the information ahead of time to study and the gather pledges per question or just general participation.

Every child who participates (usually in the 94% range) gets a Tshirt with the Wild KAT logo (student designed) which has been sponsored by local businesses. The students take the quiz on one day. This event has made from $5K - $8K most recently. Its a great event - no junk to sell, and 100% of the profit stays with the PTO.

We were straight with our parents... at back to school night! No one LOVED selling things. We pitch in $8 per child on ALL field trips, we supply each child with a book fir thier birthday we also buy 1 book per child for EACH book fair! Plus more! This year we ordered our climbing wall!!!
They were all ready set go!

Now we talked to the gym teachers and did different times for each grade. Plus we have some special children... We did 1 hour for the little ones! Not an hour straight!

Does anyone remember Jump rope for heart???

This sounds like a great event!! I will bring it up at the next meeting!

But I have a couple of questions, how long did the kids run for? Did you have a set amount of time? Also, what purpose for raising money did you give to the parents? A lot of our parents want to know where the money goes before they will give.

Thanks!

I am not 100% sure I remember the total collected... however I want to say we did about 10000. I am not the Treasurer, Sec or Pres this year so I dont have numbers infront of me! However I will say it was enough that we folded all thoughts of Catalogs!!!

There's a company called Race for Education that has the same sort of program. They charge a 15% commission on what you make, and they walk you through the entire process. I'm not sure if it would be better for us to handle things ourselves or use this company. Whatever we decide, it sounds like a lot of fun.