We are a k-5 school with apprx 350 students. We have done a walkathon for about 15 years changing it a little each year. Most recently we had the students walk around the school (ours is a square building with a covered sidewalk all the way around.) during their 45 minute PE time. We made it a safari theme and students were given a "bingo" card and each time they made it around the school they were given an animal stamp on their bingo card, when the 45 minutes were up or when the card was filled they were done. Prizes were given based on amount of money students earned and for the younger kids # of people that gave money. This year just to change things up we did a fitness fair instead of a walkathon. We had 3 stations having to do with fitness - 1 - jump roping station 2- hula hoop station 3- the hop, skip, jump station (do something different on each side of the school as they walked around) at the end of the last station each student got a bottle of water. Prizes were all fitness based like jump ropes, nerf balls, bike (big winner), certificates for horseback riding, surfing lessons, etc. We worked with the PE staff and our local Nike Outlet not only volunteered several workers but paid us per hour per staff member as a donation. The students seemed to really like this years theme. We annually make between 6500 and 10K
I had some questions about this, but I was the last person on the thread and I think it died there. So... here are my questions:
I have a couple walkathon questions...
We are a k-8 school. Do the middle schoolers get into this?
We have a field that is 1/4 mile around. Is it better to let them walk around until they give up, or set a time limit? (For example, each grade has 1 hour, and we would group some of the grades together.)
Any creative way to amp up the fun level? I know a DJ is a popular suggestion. Have people done crazy hat day/walkathon or something similar?
Finally, has anyone utilized e-mail solicitation to relatives?
