By J1 Reporters Liv Birnstihl and Anna Rasgorshek

Normally at 7:50 a.m., students at Marian are arriving to school for class. But on Sept. 18, the first place juniors are arriving to school for the first Walk-a-Thon walk time of the day. Which led students to ask, why would the winners choose to walk first? 

Marian’s Walk-a-Thon, the school’s student-led fundraiser, is usually an event with all of the school participating at the same time, but this year due to COVID, the classes had to walk at separate times. Students got to choose between 7:50, 9:10, 10:30, and 11:50 AM walk start times, in order of how close they were to their goal. A win from the Juniors let them get their first pick. According to a classwide survey, the juniors chose to walk at 7:50, winning with 37 percent of votes. 

“I just wanted to have the rest of the day to do whatever,” junior Grace Woodard said, However, this came as a shock to other juniors. 

“I was disappointed that I wouldn’t be able to sleep in,” junior Gigi Salerno said. But, by the time Walk-a-Thon rolled around, no one seemed to care that they had the earliest walk time. 

“I didn’t mind [having the first walk time] because it was really nice to get it over with first thing, and I could get breakfast with my friends afte” junior Sadie Monday said.

The other classes then choose the walk times in successive order. Seniors, who came in second, started their walk at 9:10; freshmen came in third and started at 10:30 and sophomores, who finished in fourth place, started their walk at 11:50. 

In the end, although the choice was met with initial criticism, the parking lot quickly filled with laughter and excitement as everyone was able to see their classmates again, no matter the time.