Hello Again!

I have been so busy doing some really great things. I spent a lot of time working on our school's annual jog-a-thon. I came up with the idea to have these jog-a-thons years ago while at my sister's girls jog-a-thon. This is now our fifth year. Unfortunately for me, I was basically the only one working it. I did have parents and staff help out with music, counting laps and giving the kids water, but I did the rest. I wrote a How To Run A Jog-A-Thon Manual several years ago with all of the letters to the parents and staff so it isn't hard at all. It is just really time consuming. We donated the money we raised to an organization that builds well in developing countries. It is a great organization and 100% of the donations goes toward building the wells. Outside donors pay for all of the administrative costs. All of the students from two years old to eighth grade collected sponsors, got t-shirts and ran. It was great! I had a really fun time. I love doing the jog-a-thon because we always give to a great cause and I get to be at the park with a megaphone and great music playing for hours. I had called our local paper and a reporter and photographer came and covered the story. It worked out really well. It looks like we will raise over $14,000! I tried to make sure the kids really understood what they were raising the money for. I showed them pictures of kids their age getting water from a very dirty pond, I walked from class to class with a pitcher of dirty water and explained how some people really had to drink water that looked like that, I held a drawing contest and the winner got their drawing put on the front of our jog-a-thon t-shirt, I brought a jerry can around and had the children pick it up to show them how hard it must be for children to carry it around full of water...I don't even know how many times I went into each classroom.
Another great thing is that all three of my little ones ran this year. The older kids run at a nearby park and the younger ones run at a playground at the school so I had to race over for a few minutes to watch them run. Sasha's teacher had her kids all practice running several times in the days ahead so they wouldn't be overwhelmed when they ran with all of their parents cheering them on. She even had them wear their t-shirts when they ran the day before so they would be okay with that. Smart woman. Brookelyn only wanted to run if Ray or I ran with her. It was easy for Brayden because it was his third jog-a-thon.