FOUNTAIN SPRINGS - The Race for Education may be a fundraising event, but for the students at Trinity Academy, it is a day of fun activities in the great outdoors.
The school held its eighth race event Friday on the athletic fields at the former Cardinal Brennan Junior-Senior High School. Postponed for one week due to inclement weather, the weather cooperated on Friday with sun and seasonable temperatures. Despite torrential rains the day before, the fields were fairly dry for the children to run, walk, hop and more.
Even though it is termed as a "race," the event is more a series of physical events over about three hours for children and adults.
Sister Mary Ann Spaetti, IHM, principal, was walking around wearing sunglasses in the warm sun.
"Well, God gave us a good day today," Spaetti said. "We got washed out last week, and the predictions for today, like last Friday, were not good, but it looks good. We'll be boarding the buses after 1:15, so we should be good. And if we can get most of our fun in before it rains, we can head for shelter."
Money is raised by the students, who contact potential sponsors for themselves. The event is a successor to the annual Field Day for Cardinal Brennan students. When the school closed, former Cardinal Brennan development director Michael Nieddu brought it to Trinity Academy when he became its development director.
"This is really very important. It's one of our biggest fundraisers," she said. "This year we really put a lot more energy into getting sponsors and there has been a really great response. I believe we're going to do a lot better this year, and we're really happy about this."
The money raised stays at the school for programs and some expenses.
"Anybody who is running a business knows that it takes money to pay this year's oil bill and take care of the nitty-gritty," Spaetti said. "We certainly use the money to support all of our excellent programs, like our science and technology programs, but we also use some of the money to pay the bills. We can't teach technology in the cold without electricity."
About 170 students participated from pre-kindergarten to eighth grade. A major event was the run/walk around the former football field called the Patrick W. Kempsey Sports Complex. The students were grouped by classes, with the pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and first-grade students running and walking first, followed by the higher grades. Stations are set up so that when a child finishes a lap, the identification card on the back of the shirt has a hole punched in it as proof.
The event was organized by parent volunteers Carrie Falls and Marianne McAndrew, who were kept busy distributing bottled water, bananas, orange slices and pretzels.
"We started back in March getting it ready," Falls said. "The kids filled out labels with the names, and the labels are put on the mailers to the potential sponsors."
The final sponsorship total was not ready, but it was substantially higher than last year.
"I think we're a little over $10,000 right now," McAndrew said. "We're much better than last year."