PHOTO BY JOHN LARSON

Agnes Morelos, Monica Giles and Shandace Wells were among the members of the National Honor Society chapter at Fife High School who participated in the walk-a-thon.

Walk-a-thon raises money for club, hospital

By John Larson

A walk-a-thon organized by the Fife High School chapter of National Honor Society raised nearly $1,200 to be split between the club and Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital. Thirty students from the club, joined by two teachers and six parents, walked a total of 178 miles in three hours around the track at the school on Nov. 1.

Sharyl Brown and Sarah Lucas, the two advisors for the club, were the teachers who joined their students on the track.

Brown said the idea for the event came from Allison Zurawski, president of the club. She presented it to the club’s leadership team, which agreed it would be a good idea.

Next they needed an organization to designate as a recipient of part of the money they would raise. Brown called a parent who works at Mary Bridge, who in turn put her in touch with someone involved in fundraising with the hospital in Tacoma. “We decided that was the one we were going to select,” Brown said.

Raising funds for children in need fits with the mission of National Honor Society, which Brown said is to encourage “academically talented students to give back to the community.”

It is good to stop and consider the needs of others, according to Brown. “We may think we have it tough at times,” she said. “Sometimes we need to think outside of ourselves to make other people’s lives better.”

Upbeat pop music played through the loudspeakers in the football stadium as the students and adults walked around the track. “We had fun,” Brown said. “It is good for the kids to see parents and teachers having fun.”

The club plans to hold another walk-a-thon in the spring, with Mary Bridge once again as the beneficiary.

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