By J1 Reporters  Elizabeth Monzu, Shannon Monahan, and Sydney Witkowski

Turning in forms and paper money was pushed to the background for Marian’s 2020 student-led fundraiser, Walk-A-Thon, due to COVID-19. The traditions that Marian girls follow to raise money such as bake sales, lemonade stands, and going around their neighborhood asking for money was not possible this year. 

Instead of the traditional fundraising tactics, online donations became the bulk of the money raised, which was not the case last year as many students had not heard about the online option as much as this year. “About 80 percent of the money brought in this year was through online donations,” Student Board co moderator, Ms. Jessica Abel said. This equals around $55,613.26 raised from online donations. 

Marian girls shared their experiences with deciding how to raise their money this year, with either online donations or paper money. “I only brought in cash donations,” freshman Madison Terranova said. She is one of the few girls who did not utilize online donations. 

Many upperclassmen used online donations as their only source of donations. “This year I just sent my family members the online donation link since it is so much more convenient during this time,” junior Madison Kilton said.

“I liked online donations better this year because I felt like it was less pressure. You did not have to fill out the donation forms, and to me, Walk-A-Thon still felt normal. Some other people thought that with the pandemic that it might take away the spirit of WAT, but I thought this year was pretty successful and easy,” sophomore Bella DeGeorge said.

Through the struggles of paper money not being as accessible, Marian students were able to break through WHAT and still raised a significant amount of money for their school. Online donations were the main source of money this year, and without them, the results of Walk-A-Thon would have greatly differed.