On Friday, March 15th, Third Street school will hold its third annual Walk-a-thon. In addition to being a tremendous fundraiser for the school, it is a terrific day for all the kids and staff.
Student participation is always overwhelming with all 780 students joining in. Walk-a-thon organizers break the day up into 30 minute segments where each class participates in three of the following activities: a walking/water relay around the track, cup-stacking, freeze dance, dodge ball, or a cone drill.
Every student is asked to find sponsors for their participation in the event. For every $50 in sponsorship received, the student earns a raffle ticket and the chance to win an iPad mini. The top earner will win a iPad mini outright. Last year’s big winner, Jake Pagach earned over $3,000. His family helped him go door to door in the neighborhood as well let him use their contact lists to send out a mass email to family and friends asking for their support. Jake promised that if he won, he would allow his two younger brothers, Tanner and Cody, who are also both students at Third Street, to throw a pie in his face. You can imagine how exciting it was for Jake to win as well as how everyone enjoyed seeing him with pie on his face. As you can see in the picture, he liked it as well.
This year, Friends of Third will also recognize each student who receives over $1,000 in sponsorships by spray painting a pair of shoes gold in that student’s honor.
Friends of Third hopes to raise $45,000 through the Walk-a-thon. If you would like to support the school community in general or a student in particular you can easily do that on-line at friendsofthird.org.
Friends of Third is a 501(c)3 non-profit booster group organization that supports Third Street Elementary with curricular enrichment and classroom support programs. Every dollar donated is tax deductible. Presently, FOT raises $280,000 annually which pays for teacher stipends, all librarian aides, literary services, a full-time technology instructor, technology support, computers, laptops, iPads, copy machines, and more!
