At the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year, the PTA at Meridian Ranch Elementary School in Falcon School District 49 hosted a ìFun Runî to raise money for the school. Apex Fun Run, a franchise founded five years ago in Phoenix, sponsored the run.Apex Fun Run offers a unique and innovative way for schools to raise funds for items they need.ìThe reason why we started the company was that our presidentís wife is a first-grade teacher with a very high free and reduced lunch population,î said Nick Moore, Apex program director. ìShe was spending a lot of money out of her own pocket on things for her classroom.îA typical Fun Run event lasts two weeks, Moore said. The Apex leaders are all former athletes, usually collegiate. They turn every classroom into a team, with the teacher as the ìcoach,î he said. The first day consists of an assembly with tunnels and a sound system to pump up the kids and explain the program to them, Moore said. The students raise money by getting sponsors for the Fun Run. The sponsors pay a flat rate or per lap rate, he said.ìDuring the following days, the athletes are on the school campus, going into classrooms and doing mini-leadership programs,î he said. ìAt the end of the week is the big Fun Run. Every kid gets a T-shirt, regardless of how much money they earn. Fundraising is often looked at as a necessary evil, where only the kids who raise money can partake in the fun. With our program, everyone participates and everyone feels included.îMoore said Meridian Ranch Elementary is the first school in D 49 to use Apex for their Fun Run. ìMeridian had done a fun run in the past and raised very little money,î he said. ìThis time with us, it was a huge success.îThe school had previously raised about $7,000 but came to Apex with a goal to make $18,000, Moore said.Trish Koch, president of the MRES PTA, said the school received $22,000 as a result of the Apex fundraiser. She also said each teacher from the classes that raised the most money received an iPad mini from Apex, as an incentive to energize the kids.”It was amazing and super fun,î Koch said. ìI want to do this every year. It was the best fundraiser we’ve ever done.”Moore said the goal of the Fun Runs is to eliminate the need for schools to raise funds during the year. ìWe want to stop all these restaurant nights and carnivals and cookie dough sales and just do one major event,î he said. ìA lot of times, we see the school make their budget in one event. That way, the PTA can focus on doing what they need to do, which is serve the students, not fund raise.îApex is in 23 different states but just breaking into the Colorado Springs area market, starting out slowly to make sure they do it right, Moore said. They hope to expand to more Colorado Springs schools in the future, he said.ìOur goal is to serve a million kids this year,î he said.
