To make sure their 5th Annual “Run for the Gold” Jog-A-Thon event was fun for all her students, Principal Teresa Wilkinson of Allen Elementary School made sure they all had a chance to win prizes even if they were not able to fundraise for the event.

She encouraged students to bring in donations to help raise money for a new campus playground, which was the purpose of the run this year. For every $50 donation, students were given a raffle ticket, increasing their chances of winning prizes with each pledge. Students who did not collect donations, though, were still given a raffle ticket. VP of Fundraising, Chancy Green, said that maintaining school spirit and making everyone feel included was more important to the principal than dollar amounts raised.

Green, along with PTO members, used fun incentives to keep the students excited for the event. Classes with the highest percentage of participants, not the highest amount of money raised, were awarded a popsicle party and one lucky raffle winner became the principal for a day.

“Our principal is very particular about making sure everyone is included...because some people have the means to contribute more… it’s not fair, you know. Some kids just can’t do it. Giving each student a chance keeps them all motivated,” said Green.

The PTO also introduced a few changes to the Run For The Gold this year. To celebrate its 5th anniversary, the event was themed a “color run”, which involved dousing students in different colored corn starch  as they ran along the track, resulting in a messy, colorful, exciting day for students and grown-ups alike.

This was also the first year that Allen Elementary collected donations online using PledgeStar in addition to the traditional paper pledge packets. With $25,000 raised online, PledgeStar increased the school’s revenue this year by an impressive 131% while it greatly reduced the volunteer workload for tracking money and prizes.

“PledgeStar was fabulous to work with.” remarked Green, “There just isn’t anybody out there who will do what they do for such a low fee.They don’t punish you if you make more money. We thought their pricing model was great.”