Wednesday was wet. It was chilly. It was far from an ideal day to hold a walkathon at Old Rochester Regional, but the ‘Orange Team’ at the junior high school persisted nonetheless.
As part of a junior high student-based project, students on the Orange Team chose to hold a walkathon, challenging themselves to walk for 100 minutes around the ORR track, collecting pledges for the event to benefit It’s All About the Animals, a no-kill cat shelter in Rochester.
The walk, scheduled to begin at noon, was bumped up to the morning with the pending rain. Students started out at the junior high, looping up to the high school and onto the track until the 100 minutes were over.
The students chose the cat shelter as the beneficiary of their fundraiser.
“This is our team’s first large-scale community service project, and we are hoping it succeeds so we can make the Walkathon an annual event to raise funds for other local organizations,” said Ms. Nicole Charbonneau, ELA teacher at the junior high. “This student-centered project included students working on advertising designs, pledge form designs, telethon calls for donations from local companies, communications to various networking community figures, and public announcements at school.”
Pam and Oren Robinson, owners and operators of It’s All About the Animals, could not be reached for comment before press time, but surely the unexpected funds come at a time of great need as the cat shelter is undergoing renovations for a new ‘catio’ expansion at the Marion Road facility.
By Jean Perry