In a new year, it doesn’t take long for family fitness resolutions to collide with student fundraisers involving candy and popcorn (not to mention Thin Mints and Samoas).
Instead of selling food, magazines, wrapping paper or other consumer goods, Ardmore Elementary in Villa Park tried a new way to raise money for technology upgrades this school year: Sweat.
In December, 525 students participated in a Boosterthon Fun Run, completing a total of 14,385 laps around their gym, netting about $21,000 from the pledges they collected.
“We got rid of two fundraisers to do this one fundraiser,” said Michele Storck, president of the Ardmore PTA. “By getting rid of two, we had to make $16,000 to break even. Not only did we break even, we surpassed it. We are ecstatic, and the kids loved it.”
Boosterthon Fun Runs are held in 1,300 schools across the country every year. The program typically runs over nine days, culminating in the run, for which the Boosterthon organization supplies a sound system and music, an inflatable tunnel and a giant screen so kids can see themselves in action.
“They put on a Beatles song, ‘You Can Drive My Car,’ and the kids were pretending they were steering while they were going, and all the parents were doing it on the side,” Storck said. “The kids and the teachers were really into it.”
To avoid spooking the kids, organizers didn’t share one detail beforehand — that 35 laps equaled 2 miles. (About every seven laps, or whenever they needed to, kids walked a lap. They did a cool-down afterward.)
Program materials encouraged kids to seek $1 per lap from contributors.
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“But people could give less than that — 20 cents, 30 cents, 50 cents — because $35 is kind of steep for some people,” Storck said.
Chris Carneal founded Boosterthon in 2001 while in college in Alabama. To help pay his way through school, Carneal, who played baseball, offered sports tutoring to kids. “One day one of those students I was working with pulled the Infamous Product Catalog out of his backpack,” Carneal said, laughing.
The son of a teacher, Carneal knew such fundraisers were increasingly important to schools. He started thinking of how he could leverage sports to help.
“The truth is, people may not really want (to buy a product) — some of it’s junky, some of it is obesity-creating — but they want to help the school,” Carneal said. “There’s something about sports and fitness that people love. Even apart from athletic ability, it calls out the best in everybody.”
He knew schools sometimes plan their own fundraising runs. “What no one knows is how much effort and organization goes into creating an event,” he said.
Carneal wanted a model that wouldn’t require reinvention at each school. He wanted the events to be fun, easy and inclusive. All of the students are invited to participate in the run, whether they collect pledges or not. The goal is to build wellness, community and character along with raising money.
Boosterthon Fun Runs entered the Chicago area about two years ago. In the 2014-15 school year, fun runs are on the books at about 35 schools in the area, including Oak School in Hinsdale, May Watts in Naperville, South Loop in Chicago, St. Christina Catholic School in Chicago and Whiteley in Hoffman Estates.
The organization, which Carneal and his wife run from Atlanta, is for-profit. But Carneal said schools net more from a fun run than from a typical product-based fundraiser.
“We typically raise 70 percent more than a product sale,” he said, “and we also return a greater amount of money to the school.”
Carneal expects the program will generate about $600,000 in profits for Chicago-area schools this year.
At a time when technology use is replacing outdoor play and group activities, the events give kids a chance to connect and to move.
“I had so much fun,” said Hanna Mitrick, a fourth-grader at Ardmore. “I loved that I could raise funds for my school. The Boosterthon team was nice and encouraged everyone.”
Each school day leading up to the final run, a Boosterthon representative came to Ardmore for a character-focused huddle, sometimes showing a clip from their computers.
“Every day I made sure I made it to at least one huddle, so I would know what was being presented,” Storck said. “They might say something about how you can influence your community when you do something nice for someone, then end with ‘tell the person on your right that they’re awesome!’ and the kids would cheer. ‘Now tell the person on the left!’ The Boosterthon people who came were young and like rock stars to the kids.”
The huddles sometimes ran over 10 minutes because prizes would be awarded at the end, Storck said. So next year, the school will hold the huddles during the lunch period.
“And we’re not going to pass out prizes then — we’ll have teachers have them outside the classroom so it won’t interfere with class time at all.”
The prizes that Boosterthon reps awarded for pledges were coveted, Storck said.
“There’s a boomerang that actually works,” Storck said. “Years ago we bought my daughter this ball at Disney and it was $30 — and my son just got one for free.”
Storck admitted that her daughter initially didn’t want to participate in the fun run.
“She wound up doing all 35 laps,” Storck said, “and she was sorry she didn’t collect more pledges, and she was sorry it was over.”