Students bring home Dawg Walk fundraiser envelopes Friday

BY DANI TIETZ
dani@mahometnews.com

Mahomet, Ill. – Students at Middletown Prairie and Lincoln Trail Elementary came home with Dawg Walk fundraising envelopes Friday.

For decades, Mahomet-Seymour students in grades K-5 have looked forward to their day at the infamous Dawg Walk, but it is the money students raise during a two-week period that impacts additional learning opportunities throughout the school year.

PTO President Ashley Webber said the organization is committed to its mission to help the schools in any way possible.

By hosting the annual fundraiser in late summer, the PTO is able to redistribute most of the fundraising profits back to the schools in the year it is raised.

Because of the money donated to the PTO, they are able to come back into the schools throughout the year for other programming students look forward to: HANDS Around the World, STEAM, reading incentives and PBIS, among others.

In years past, the PTO has also provided teachers with stipends to purchase materials for their classrooms, and last year the group also gave teachers and staff the opportunity to identify larger ticket items through a grant process.

When the Mahomet-Seymour School District needed additional funding for the Middletown Prairie playground, the PTO stepped up to the plate with $10,000 from Dawg Walk funding.

General fund donations are something that the PTO has always practiced, but recently it ear-marked one-third of the gross profits to just go to the school for their general needs.

Kids not only see the benefit of the Dawg Walk in their classrooms, but after the fundraising date has closed, they are rewarded for their efforts.

The PTO now provides each student with a Dawg Walk T-shirt to be worn on the day of the Dawg Walk event. Classes also wear these T-shirts when they go on field trips so that everyone is cohesive.

Students can also take home prizes based on the level of funds they raised.

This year, the PTO worked together to decide on prizes that kids were excited about while also not breaking the bank.

Some of those prizes include a drawstring bag, color-changing water bottle and a programmable lighted message fan. Other prizes include a one-hour pass to Elevate or a $10 PTO book fair credit.

Students who earn the most money will get to have a pizza party and a cinema lightbox. The top two Dawg Walk earners will get a seat on the PTO parade float.

New to the prize box in 2018, the top five earners in each school got to slime the administration. The PTO also chose five other students who raised any amount at random to participate in the crowd-pleasing event.

Any student who raises $10 will get a $5 gift card to YoYo’s.

Donation envelopes are due back to the schools by Sept. 11.

The Dawg Walk at Middletown will be held on Sept. 26. Students will walk outside the school, and then parents and students are invited to a dance party on the playground.

Lincoln Trail students will take the annual Dawg Walk to Buffalo Trace on Sept. 27, with popsicles and a dance party.

Both schools will host their slime party on the day of the Dawg Walk this year.

The PTO, an organization that has worked for decades to bridge the gap between parents and teachers is still something volunteers believe is relevant today.

“You’ve got this whole integration of teachers and parents you want to help,” Webber said. “So this is like the best way to bring everybody’s ideas.”

After meeting with teachers earlier this year, the group was happy to hear that teachers will take turns participating in the meetings during the upcoming year.

“That way they can have feedback and input,” Webber said.

“As a teacher, I feel like there’s so many things that you can use in your classroom that will benefit students and parents and families in the community that just isn’t in the budget for our school,” PTO Vice President Anna Webb said.

“And so, you know, as our fundraiser rolls out, we’re hoping that we can provide some of those things that will make a difference. That the school can’t provide, not because they don’t want to, but because the funds are not there.”

PTO Treasurer Nathan Seymour said volunteering with the PTO has just given him another opportunity to give back to the community and engage in the environment his kids are in.

It’s not all work for the PTO volunteers. They also enjoy being known among students as “the box top lady,” “the tutu lady” or watching students perform their talents at the annual Lincoln Trail PTO talent show.