Mallett School students participate in walk-a-thon

FARMINGTON – Students at W.G. Mallett School celebrated an ongoing project Wednesday by participating in a walk-a-thon to raise funds for their playground. By seeking sponsors for the walk, money was raised to go towards an outdoor track at the school that will be available for use by students as well as community members.

The idea for the project began last year when new school board member, Doug Dunlap, heard about the goal and decided to combine efforts with principal Tracy Williams. At the time, Dunlap was preparing for a 221-mile hike along the John Muir Trail in California. He suggested turning his hike into an opportunity to help fund the walking path by seeking sponsors. Throughout his hike, Dunlap sent pictures and notes to Williams which she shared with the students.

Dunlap joined students for the walk-a-thon Wednesday, doing laps around the playground while younger kids cheered them on. Roughly six laps made one mile and walkers received a marker for each lap done.

“We’re not only raising money for the track, we are also adding to our new “mileage program” that we started,” Physical Education teacher Velda Yamashiro said.

Yamashiro teaches gym class throughout the district, traveling from school to school. The mileage program is now happening at both Mallett School as well as Cape Cod hill School. Students complete miles during gym class, recess and sometimes during the day with their teacher, which are then added to the entire school’s miles. For every handful of miles, a student can earn a “toe token” which they can hang on their backpack or lace onto one of their shoes as a way to show their pride about being physically active.

At Mallett School, students are working towards completing enough miles to have walked the entire 2,650 mile-long Pacific Crest Trail. They have about 400 miles to go.

“The greatest gift we can give kids is to encourage this healthy habit,” Dunlap said.

A total of $9,000 needs to be raised in order to construct the track. People can still sponsor walkers by pledging an amount of money for each mile completed. For more information you can contact Tracy Williams at 778-3529.