Today was our fundraiser FUN RUN, sponsored by All*Star Fun*Run.  Under the direction of team athlete leaders, all learners and their classroom leaders participated in making this event a huge Miller success!  We kicked off the festivities last week with a campus-wide pep rally.  Throughout the past week, students and their classroom coaches (teachers) have been in training with team leaders in daily “team huddles” to promote the character traits of leaders through the ASCEND theme.  Leaders always Appreciate, Serve, are Considerate, Encouraging, Never-Give-Up, and are always Dependable.  Students and families have secured pledges for the laps they ran today.  I can joyfully report our students ran an average of 34 laps!  WOW–what a great morning!

Regardless of financial giving, every student participated, received an All*Star ASCEND jersey, were a part of the daily team character huddles, and participated in the fun during the event today.   Most impressive to the All*Star Team Athletes were the many Miller parents and volunteers who came to support our runners today by marking shirts as each lap was completed, cheering for everyone, passing out water, and joining in the fun this morning!  You can see just a few of the many fine folks huddled here; we thank you for your partnership and encouragement during this school-wide event!

   Here’s Toller, an All*Star Team athlete and our campus leader, taking a pie in the face (for me) because certain goals were made this week.  Thanks, Toller; I owe you one of my famous chocolate pies…

Several of my Miller learner friends shared reflections with me about their experiences:

1. The team huddles were my favorite part!
2. There’s so much energy; WOW!
3. Leadership ROCKS; I want to do my best always!
4. The music made me move faster; my laps were done quickly and we laughed the whole time!
5. I loved it that my dad came by to cheer me on!
6. I hope we do this every year!  🙂

Why do we need a campus fundraiser each year?  There are ongoing projects we support throughout each school year (field trips, student awards and incentives, special speakers and events, etc.) not covered by traditional district funds allotted through our campus budget.  These activities must be funded through our campus activity fund, thus, we must supplement this fund each year.  We only do one campus fundraiser each year and we’re done for this year (more on our results from today in a future blog).

As always, we are indebted to our Miller families and our entire learning community for embracing our many projects.  Your time, talents, gifts, and service add extraordinary value to our educational setting.

As my friend, Nolan (pictured here), summed it up today:  “Mrs. Van, I’m tired; I’m happy; we’re all  All*Star leaders at Miller!”