By J1 Reporter Mia Dunker

When thinking of Walk-A-Thon (WAT), people tend to think of how students fundraise, but there are other people who are with them every step of the way — homeroom teachers. Where do they fit in during WAT season? Some homeroom teachers and students shared their opinions.

According to Spanish teacher Ms. Amy Brabec, a homeroom teacher’s biggest role during Walk-A-Thon is to motivate students. Brabec has a junior homeroom, which she said met their goal in the final week. “It seemed like a long shot, but somehow things came together on the fourth collection date.”

Brabec had some interesting ways to motivate her students. She said, “I promised that I would do the splits if they exceeded their homeroom goal.” That incentive seems to have worked, because her homeroom, 313, met their goal.

Junior Madison Genoways is in Brabec’s homeroom. “If we met our goal by the last collection day, she would do the splits in front of us the morning of Walk-A-Thon,” said Genoways about Brabec’s deal. Genoways said that Brabec did the splits during homeroom in the morning and described it as “kickin’.” 

“We all lost our minds,” Genoways said.

English teacher Dr. Renee McGill agrees that a homeroom teacher’s biggest role in WAT is encouragement. She said that she spent Walk-A-Thon week, “trying to generate excitement,”. McGill said that to do this she did things like showing motivational videos. 

McGill said that there were some difficulties for students bringing in money, though. She said that it can just be hard to ask people for money. “For some girls, it is really going out of their comfort zone,” she said.

Even though it is her first Walk-A-Thon as a teacher at Marian, McGill’s senior homeroom exceeded its goal. She said that with online donations, they made about 135 percent of their goal.

Some students shared their opinions, too. Genoways agreed that homeroom teachers are supposed to motivate students to bring in money. She also talked about how her teachers got their students to fundraise. She said that her homeroom teacher, Brabec, “yelled at us a lot.”

Junior Rylee Gregg also said that homeroom teachers are a big motivational force during Walk-A-Thon. “I think that they play a really big role in motivating the students,” Gregg said. If it were not for homeroom teachers, students would not bring in enough money to meet our goal. Gregg is in homeroom 314, one of the few junior homerooms not meet the school goal. They came close, though, falling only a couple hundred dollars short, according to Gregg. Even if her homeroom did not meet their goal, Gregg said that her teacher, Spanish teacher Caitlin Gaule,  made a big difference in their motivation to raise money.