Walk-a-thon

Walk-a-thons to raise money for the school seem to be all the rage suddenly. Both kids schools added one this year, and I know I've read of some other schools doing them too.

M came home early on in the school year all excited about the walk-a-thon. Raise money (some for your favorite teacher or program - he chose his technology teacher), win cool prizes, etc. I filled out the permission slip and he got a sticker that allowed him to cut in the lunch line or the library line. Oooh aaah. Big stuff. Then a sponsor form came home. I dutifully agreed to sponsor him - at $1 per lap number. ie $1 for lap 1, $2 for lap 2, etc - with a total donation cap of $50, though, because they were billing it as a 20K, consisting of 14 laps. If he had walked all 14 laps, that would have been quite a donation! ($105, as M learned how to figure consective addition in math class).

But, after getting my sponsorship, nothing else happened. I suggested asking grandparents. My mom even promised she would sponsor him, but he never actually asked her. The last few days he decided he didn't want to go walk. "What's the point - I'll only get a few dollars...not enough for a prize." and "I hate walking. I never wanted to do this." However, we decreed that since he signed up, he had to go walk.

So this morning, we headed off to his school for the walk-a-thon. We got there and got signed in, M still grumbling. I sent him off to get started and said that A and I would follow. And we did, though far enough behind that we weren't exactly sure where M was. Then M must have passed us at the end of the first lap, while A and I were looking at the silent auction items. I bought some cookies to support the chorus and A and I waited for M to give him his cookie - by the time we met up again, M had completed 3 laps. He still wasn't thrilled, but was in a better mood and was seeing some of his friends and listening to his iPod. We went back to the car so M could change out of his sweatshirt and into his walk-a-thon t-shirt, then I sent M off again while A and I headed home for lunch. We could have stayed there and bought hotdogs for lunch, but I figured M would keep walking more if we weren't there.

We came back a little after 1, to see the "surprise guest appearance" of his principal's band. M allowed that they were "OK". By this time, he had completed 8 laps, of roughly a mile each - and about 11.5K, so a good effort (and one that A informed me would cost me $36).

I have a picture to go with this, but unfortunately blogger isn't inclined to let me get pictures tonight, so maybe I'll try adding photos tomorrow...