Photo by Theo Tate
Maryville Elementary will have a 5K run at 9 a.m. Saturday at Wilson Park. (Front row, from left) Ryder Cell, Chloe Dix, Ryan Dix, Caleb Schaefer, Emma DeBruce, Charlie Bremer, Audrey Whitehead, Luke Stepanek, Connor Schaefer, Lincoln Burnett and Brody Cell; (back row, from left) Lauren Dix, Lauren DeBrue, Laura Cell, Jane Whitehead, Staci Schaefer and Cameron Schaefer.
GRANITE CITY — Maryville Elementary School will be making history at 9 a.m. Saturday at Wilson Park.
The school will be having a 5K (3.1-mile) run called the Maryville Elementary Runraiser 5K. Registration begins at 8 a.m. and the cost is $25.
“This is the first time that a school in our district has decided to do a 5K fundraiser,” said Staci Schaefer, one of the organizers. “We’re hoping to draw a great crowd and it’s open to the public, so everyone is welcome. It benefits our kids.”
Laura Cell, another race organizer and an employee at Maryville Elementary, came up with the idea of having a 5K run to help raise funds for the school.
“We decided to put on a 5K run and open it up to the community toward our students and their families,” said Cell, who also works at Dawson’s Fitness and Boot Camp. “We thought it would be a good idea to promote a healthy lifestyle and see kids up and moving and have them do something active. I’m really excited about it. It’s something different and I thought it would be awesome. I pitched the idea to the PTA board members. We were thinking let’s try to do something different for our fundraiser this year. We don’t have a lot of extra money right now. To buy something we all really want, it’s kind of hard for our families here. We all try to think of something different to do. I said, ‘Hey, what about if we do a 5K run?’ They loved the idea.”
Cell, a 2001 GCHS graduate, said she started promoting the event at the end of September.
“We had a kickoff assembly here at school,” she said. “We got the kids pumped up for it. We put it out there on Facebook and we were hanging fliers at local businesses and kids were handing fliers.”
Cell said the race is open for children and adults of all ages. Participants are allowed to compete in their Halloween costumes.
“We do two fundraisers a year,” Cell said. “We do a spring one and a fall one. We would like to see only one fundraiser the entire year. For the students here at Maryville, we would like this fundraiser to be so successful that this would be the only fundraiser we would do. Instead of having to do another fundraiser in the spring, we’re hoping that the fall fundraiser would raise enough funds to where it could be the only fundraiser we will do all year.”
Cell said anyone who participates in the race will get a medal.
“The little kids would love that,” Cell said. “It will make them feel they accomplished something.”
There is no online registration for the race. Anyone who is interested in competing can call Maryville Elementary at (618) 931-2044 for early registration. They also can contact Cell at laura.cell@gcsd9.net for information.
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