<p>OK, here are the details: I’m the vice president of a school club that operates under the Operation Smile organization. Usually, the club organizes bake sales in order to raise moeny, and each bake sale only raises about 100-150 per bake sale. And since we only have one per month, we are limited in how much we can raise for this organization. </p>
<p>Then an idea hit me.</p>
<p>A walk-a-thon. </p>
<p>My more romantic side thought it was a fantastic and plausible idea! It could be bigger than my school’s usual jog-a-thons as it could include people from church, neighbors, and the general community in addition to the school’s students and family. I’ve also heard of high school students organizing walk-a-thons that raised up to $20,000! It’s incredible! </p>
<p>But then my rational side began to argue: wait, how would we even get the resources to do this? How much would it cost to create and get liability waivers? Would we have to use the streets of the town, and if so do we need a specific permit? What are the logistics behind that? And then what if we have too much people and our street or field that we’re walking around is too small! Or, what if not enough people come and our trail is too big?! And how would we track the money!? How would we get sponsors in order to help us, would the Operation Smile organization help us out? Gah!</p>
<p>Still, I think it’d be pretty amazing if my club (which currently only has two main people since most of the club graduated last year, but when the school year starts we are recruiting more) could put this together and it’d be fantastic to help all of those in need by raising the money.</p>
<p>I haven’t talked to the president about it yet, as I want to present it to her fully fleshed out. I just want to know the logistics of it. So, if anyone has organized a High School Walk-a-Thon or been a part of one, I would be forever grateful if you could give me some advice. Thank you!</p>
<p>I found this link: [Fundraising</a> Ideas - Walk-A-Thons And Bike-A-Thons](<a href=“http://profitquests.com/IdeasWalkathons]Fundraising”>http://profitquests.com/IdeasWalkathons)
Anything else I should know?</p>
<p>I’ve never done a walk-a-thon but relay for life is kind of like a walk-a-thon (only it’s not at all like one, very hard to explain). We walk around a track at our high school for relay you could use that for a walk-a-thon. Your school will probably create a standard liability form and just print it. You have to talk with your clubs advisor’s about logistics. In my school students are not allowed to handle money at all for events.
Walk-a-thons are generally cheap to organize on the front end (buy some ice and drinks to sell, make arts and crafts, shirts etc.) because a lot of it can get donated.</p>
<p>The most important thing is to get everything approved by your school. They will tell you exactly what you can and cannot do. Create a basic plan of what you are going to do and present it to the appropriate person. First your club advisor then the principal or Vice Principal or whoever and then anyone else who needs to be involved. </p>
<p>Just a heads up big events are a pain in the butt to organize the first time, be prepared for a lot of headaches and paper work. It will be worth it though</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. I definitely follow you on getting everything approved by my school, but I’m just hoping it is more of an Operation Smile thing than a school thing, you know what I mean? And besides, our track is small so I’m not sure if many people can fit on it. :(</p>
<p>I know what your saying, but some schools have strict policies on event planning (for safety and liability) and if you are doing it with your club members it’s going to be a school thing for Operation Smile. The track we were on was around our football field and I want to say it’s only 6-8 lanes wide. It fit a ton of people.
You make the most money on the little things you can sell there (Drinks, food, little crafts)</p>
<p>What sucks is our tracks is only like two lanes wide. :(</p>
<p>That is really small.
You could have people just walk around a field or around the school have cones set up as a ‘track’</p>
<p>That’s what I was thinking. Maybe instead of on the field, we could do it in the huge high school parking lot. Actually, that’s not such a bad idea.</p>