Last year, before the pandemic hit, a Parent Teacher Organization was formed at Camp Verde Elementary School with the goal of fundraising on behalf of the school and its classrooms.
One of the major goals of the group this year was to fundraise for a new marquee for the elementary school.
On Thursday, March 11, just before the end of term before spring break, CVES held a Fun Run as a fundraiser for that marquee project. The school hoped to encourage families in the community to raise up to $20,000 to go toward the purchase of the marquee, as well as fundraising for other projects.
“We were looking to do some sort of event that was outside and COVID- friendly that was also a good fundraiser for our school,” CVES Principal Jaclyn Campbell said. “The elementary school didn’t have a marquee, and we thought it would be nice to have notes to parents and promote the marquee.”
“It was wildly successful,” Campbell said. “Way more successful than we anticipated.”
Far outstripping the initial $20,000 goal, the school raised more than $33,000 as of press time, nearly reaching its expanded goal of $35,000. The fundraising site, accessible via a link on the school’s Facebook page, will stay open until the end of spring break this week.
For Campbell, this activity was an opportunity to raise money, but also one way to celebrate things starting to return to normal after a difficult year. While Camp Verde Unified School District stayed open for in-person learning for most of the past year despite the COVID-19 pandemic, it nevertheless has been a year without many of the public events that normally surround the school. Campbell sees the Fun Run as a chance for the kids to spend time outside and do things together.
“Historically we’ve done Turkey Trots or reindeer runs. We’ve never done a run for fundraising,” Campbell said. “I’d like to continue those as holiday fun runs that are not fundraising. I see this as a spring event. We could do a fundraiser before we head off to spring break each year. It was a nice way to say goodbye to the students.”
The event was held outdoors, making it easier for social distancing, and each grade was given its own separate time slot, keeping crowds from developing. Children were given the chance to collect stickers from different buckets laid around the field as they ran and were encouraged to do specific dance moves as they went.
“For some kids it was a competitive event, but for the rest of the student population it was just a fun run,” Campbell said.
The school partnered with a private company, Fun Run Time Inc., which specializes in events like this. As a result, the elementary school is only able to take 75% of the proceeds from the fundraiser. However, Campbell said that she was extremely happy with the job that the company did, making it easy for school staff to hold the event and have it run smoothly.
“I really think we can attribute all of this to a really supportive community,” Campbell said. “It’s a community that loves our elementary school.”
The school also put an incentive for reaching their $20,000 goal — Campbell and Dean of Students Daria Weir would both kiss a pig. When the community met that goal easily, the school administrators followed through on their end of the deal, kissing “Honey,” a large pig provided by the Mulchaire family, who have a student and a teacher at the school.
“Little did I know it was going to be a big farm hog,” Campbell said.
“I appreciate the hard work of the kids and the staff promoting it,” Camp Verde Unified School District Superintendent Danny Howe said. “It’s going to the PTO, and the PTO is doing things to support the teachers. I thank the community for being so supportive of the kids.”
