By J1 Reporter Scarlett Henery

          During Walk-A-Thon’s September season, Marian students began bringing in donations to their homeroom in order to contribute to this annual school-wide fundraiser. Door to door students went, asking their neighbors to consider donating. Others girls called their relatives, and almost all of the students created clever ways to raise money on their own. Whether it was car washes, bake sales, or individual money brought in, all Marian students contributed to the school-wide goal. Incentives set by Marian motivated them to bring as much money for their class as possible. These incentives could include a free day off, an all school Halloween movie, or an extra $5,000 for Surprise Day. Another added bonus was that the actual walk was half as long for the classes who get first or a second place. 

          If these didn’t motivate the students enough, Walk-A-Thon results also corresponded to the classes choice at Color Block, an important aspect of Marian’s competitive Field Day. If certain goals were met for WAT, the school and individual classes would be given some of these rewards. These gave students a reason to encourage class-wide donations. Not only were there incentives to donate as a class, there were also personal bonuses offered. For students, each $60 brought in would get them a ticket to vote for the teacher dunk tank. And any student who brought in $200 by the second collection date would receive a free day off, free Marian moms lunch, and a raffle ticket for a skip the line pass or a WAT parking spot. 

          Junior Chizzy Okolo brought in more than $200 for her class and said, “It was the day off of school that motivated me to bring in donations.”

Many students, including Sophomore Class Officer Elliot Coziahr, agree that they wanted the free day off to “sleep in and hang out with friends.” This was reason enough for students to participate heavily in the fundraiser.

After WAT, students were happy to find that they had achieved many of the goals they hoped for. As a school, Marian raised $120,000 in donations and are rewarding the students with a day off of school and a Halloween movie. Creating these coveted rewards pushed students to bring in more donations. Without these motivations, Marian could expect a lesser amount of money donated each year.