The 2022 Grace Walkathon
Every year, Grace Lutheran School has a walkathon event to raise money to support our amazing school and a charity. This year, Grace students collected food and supplies to benefit BEYOND HUNGER.
In preparation, students, staff, and volunteers distributed brown paper bags along our walking routes for River Forest residents to fill with food for the food pantry. As this is an annual event at Grace school, people in our community expect the bags and are very generous with their donations.
On Friday, September 30th, students went to chapel as parent volunteers gathered across the street at Priory Park. Grace is blessed to have so many incredible parents who have great energy and willingness to volunteer their time to help our school and community.
Starting with 8th grade, class by class got released from chapel to start walking. Parent volunteers walked with each grade. Higher grades walked the longest routes, while our PK – JK classes only walked once around the block. Each class had one to several wagons with them to collect the food left out for donation. There were water stations set up along every walking route to ensure our students remained hydrated.
After each class completed their walk, it was game time! Early childhood had their own games set up at the Concordia softball field, while all the other grades headed to Priory Park. It was a BEAUTIFUL day! The weather was fantastic, and the students had loads of fun. Early childhood joined the rest of the school at Priory for a staff/student tournament. Matthew and Mrs. Brucato were the 2022 walkathon game champions!
Within one week, our students donated nearly 2,500 items to Beyond Hunger not including the bags from community members. In total, we were able to drop off nearly 5,000 pounds of pantry staples to Beyond Hunger. We are so proud of our students! In addition, we raised $35,730 which eclipses last year for the largest total ever in our 11 years of the walkathon. Thank you to everyone who donated and solicited donations from friends and family. We are so grateful to all of you who made this day such a remarkable success!
