It’s hard to believe a month has gone by since St. Martha hosted it’s first-ever Rock-a-thon event! Check out this highlights video and the below blog post recap of all the details!
The two-week program, powered by Boosterthon, kicked off with a Pep Rally on September 23. From there, each student was able to create their own pledge page using an online platform with a variety of tools to help them reach family and friends.
Our goal was to raise $20,000 toward remodeling efforts for our Library/Media Center. We surpassed that goal and ended up raising $26,122 total!
Here’s some other cool stats about the program:
- We gathered pledges from 36 states and even 5 other countries including Italy, Poland and Serbia!
- Our pledges came from a variety of friends and family. Here was the breakdown: 25% parents, 29% grandparents, 27% relative, 12% family friend, 1% coworker, 2%business, 4% other
- Top pledging classes were: Jenkins (#1), Kuhl (#2), Matz (#3). 7th grade was the top pledging middle school class.
During the two weeks the Boosterthon team was on campus, students were led through a daily curriculum focused on leading lives of character. Middle Schoolers completed Bible-study type lessons and Pre-K – 5th grade learned about traits like Generosity, Kindness, and Humility through a series of videos with a Wild West theme.
Students were also motivated in their fundraising efforts by a series of nightly fundraising challenges! In, addition to the prizes they earned individually, students also earned class-wide incentives for completing various challenges! Here’s a look back at some of those highlights:
- When 3rd grade was the highest pledging class one night, they got to duct tape Jumpin’ Jon to the flagpole!
- The top pledger in each class got to pie Jumpin’ Jon in the face
- After surpassing our $20,000 the final night’s top pledgers got to ice bucket Jumping Jon!
- A variety of crazy hair days, crazy sock days, wear your pajama days were earned throughout the course of the Rock-a-thon!
- Many families flexed their creative muscles posting some clever and comical skits and videos on social media in the name of earning more pledges!
When the day finally arrived, all students “rocked” their Rock-a-thon t-shirts – thanks to donations from our generous sponsors!
Middle School students got to participate in a Color Run – so their t-shirts were white (at the start of the day) but covered in a variety of colors by days’ end!
Parents were able to cheer on their students decked out in shamrock beads making lots of noise with Shamrock cowbells! They could even create personalized, Shamrock-branded signs with their kid(s) names to help cheer them on!
Despite the unseasonable heat, students enjoyed the day, cheering one another on, having lunch together outside and dancing on the football field with the Boosterthon DJ.
“It was fun to see students, teachers and parents just enjoying the day together,” said Karey McDowell, Rock-a-thon chair. “When we began researching the type of fundraiser we wanted to pursue next, we knew it was important that it not only be financially successful, but also something FUN that would bring our community together and encourage things like teamwork and had leadership and character-building elements.”
