The Walkathon was held in the Indoor Track/Main Gym between 8 p.m. on Feb. 28, and 6 a.m on March 1. It raised $5,000. Eighteen teams participated, with just under 100 students.
Team Joe Walkathon won the Walkathon with 444 laps walked, and team Midnight Striders raised the most money. Both received trophies with their names engraved on it.
Junior Jakob Dening was on Joe Walkathon and his favorite part was hanging out with his friends. However, he didn’t like staying throughout the whole night. Dening thought it would have been better to have the Walkathon during the day, so he wouldn’t have been so tired.
Dening’s brother, Sam, was on team John Walkathon. His favorite part about the Walkathon was “spending time with friends”. His least favorite part was the side effects of walking for multiple hours. Dening thought more people watching the walkers, making sure no one was running, would’ve made it better.
Freshman Ryan Chen was on team Fishy. His favorite part was walking, but his least favorite part was fighting the tiredness of staying awake until 6 a.m., which he failed to do.
Vera House was selected as the fundraiser for the walkathon, which was from a vote that the whole school took. Senior Brian Tollar, president of the executive board, set up a fundraiser on GoFundMe for the Vera House, “a local organization dedicated to supporting survivors of domestic violence,” which was from the J-D school website. Family members of people on the teams, and team members, put their team name in their name on the GoFundMe, so event organizers could gauge who raised the most money, so they could award them with the trophy.
The student government also received over $1,000 from the walkathon. They received the money from the event tickets. Many clubs attended the walkathon to sell food and drinks.
The Walkathon fundraiser was started last year, by then co-presidents seniors Karunmay Aggarwal and Amanda Aitken. That year, the funds went towards the We Rise Above the Streets non-profit. Over $6,000 was raised from the walkathon last year.
