We had our very first Fun Run on 6-1-07. Our PTO was a little leary of the idea so they made us (1st year members) hold it at the end of the year. All kids participated in the Run and the money was turned in the following week. We also only asked for the envelope back, not the pledge sheet.

We had a schedule and only 1 class ran at a time. It worked out perfect for our school. All the kids had fun. We did have a couple kids with asthma issues that had to go home. It was the most humid day of the year! Which helped us move this fundraiser to the fall. We are also trying to get rid of catalog sales. We raised $2300. About 1/3 of our kids turned in money. WE knew we would have a low turnout because it was end of the year.

We already have our date set for the fall and are working on making it bigger and better for the kids!

Our School Did a Walk A thon Last spring and it went well. We made it fun for the kids. Heres the Low down. We are a very samll school ( 120 Students). our kids wear uniforms so we told the kids that they could wear any shorts IF they brought in so much money the day before the walk. We had over Half our students bring in the set amount. The parents then Provided bottled water for their childs Classroom. the kids had One hour to walk as many laps they could. At the "Finish line" the kids got a counting Chip to put into their baggie. At the end of their hour we counted the chips and let them know how many laps they Walked. A few of the teachers made it even better. For the student that walked or ran the most laps they got a ice cream Sundae. we raised over $2000. in one day! Oh yea all we had to do to get started was make up the pledge sheet and glue it onto a lagre Mannila Envelope . No out of pocket cost!

If anyone would like any information, I have a lot that I can email to you. Please email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. I will not check back for any email me too's that are posted here. I have been doing this now for a couple of years and I am willing to share what information that I have.
~B

We created our own envelopes and pledge sheets. Most of the "walkers" received "flat donations" but a few did receive pledges for each lap walked. Students were also able to come and go as they pleased as long as their parent was present, the second year we did this. They were just asked to hand in their "lap cards" that they wore around their neck.....(just a square laminated piece of paper with laps numbered one to 40..that we hole-punched each time they completed a lap and tied around their neck with LONG pieces of YARN) If and when they returned to the track, we simply gave them their lap card back. At the end, the lap cards were stapled to their sponsor sheets so that they could collect their donations. Once we received their total donations, we gave them their prizes. As far as liability, the first two times we did this we did ask parents to sign a waver. This year the PTO has invested in insurance paid for by the Board of Ed. We will be offering other "field day" type events in the middle of the track to keep families/students around and interested to encourage them to save money at our concession stand. (All the items for the concession stand were donated from big warehouse stores like BJ's and CostCo and local vending companies--hamburgers, hotdogs, popcorn, water, pretzels, snack foods, etc.)

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.

We did our first Fun Run last fall and raised way more than ever in catalog sales, plus we had about 95% of our kids return their pledge envelopes. Every student walked, and no, we didn't need waivers. The event was well-publicized and only one parent out of 600 asked that their child sit it out.

We made our own pledge envelopes by printing stickers with our event logo and sticking them on large manila envelopes so they couldnt' get lost. We encouraged both $/lap and flat donations, but we DID NOT collect the pledge forms, only the final money. We didn't want to chase down unfulfilled pledges.

We also did not mail any solicitations out like many of the fundraising companies do. We relied on our kids to reach out to their family and friends themselves.

We gave the kids bottled water and fruit after they completed the run, but not custom water bottles. They are bulky to store and kids usually have many, many at home. Instead we gave custom printed dog tags when the child returned the donation envelope. Easy to store and hand out, the kids loved them. We accepted any donation amount, even $0 in the envelope so every kid had the opportunity to earn a dog tag. That's how we got 95% participation, though only about 3 or 4 envelopes were empty. Our average donation was $60-70 per student.

We gave free t-shirts to every kid, and every staff member including all teachers and support staff. The entire school was wearing the t-shirt that day. Colors were determined by class (4 colors) and helped us manage the running on the track (each color collected lap counters at their color corner of the track). The t-shirt logo was designed by a student from a logo contest we ran a few months ahead. We did our run in the fall, and all year long the kids wore their t-shirts. One grade even used them as "uniforms" for field trips. They cost us about $3.25 each, but next year we have a sponsor so they'll be free! I definately think the cost of t-shirts is worth it.

It was a great way to raise lots of money and build school spirit at the same time. We looked into a couple companies that do this for you, but decided we had the resources to do it on our own.