BY ERIKA ANDERSON

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--Rain showers held off until late afternoon as students at Christ the King School raced around the school Nov. 20 to benefit needy families during the holidays.

Nearly every student in the school participated in the Turkey Trot, organized by physical education teacher Janet Brown. Participants donated fifty cents to enter the event, which raised money to buy turkeys for 18 families. The winning girl and boy at each grade level had a turkey donated in his or her name to a family in need.

Races started at 8:45 a.m. and continued throughout the day, with each grade level running separately. Pre-kindergarten and first-grade students ran half a mile, while second through eighth grades ran seven-tenths of a mile. Many parents were on hand to help out.

Brown said the students were very excited about the races.

“We have had nothing but positive cheering all day,” she said. “The students have been helping each other. It’s really been wonderful.”

Many students donated extra money, Brown said, and the fifth grade sold donuts to add to the fund-raiser. More than $100 was left over to give to the families as gift certificates so they could have a complete Thanksgiving meal. A parent also donated turkey dressing.

Brown has led previous turkey trots, but this is the first time the race was held as a fund-raiser.

“The kids were all so excited,” she said. “They knew that they were helping others. It makes it more meaningful because it doesn’t matter if you win, but if you run. If the kids didn’t participate, then we couldn’t have raised the money.”

Brown said she would love to see other schools implement the fund-raiser.

“I think we can make a huge impact in our own community,” she said. “We are always giving to missions and things like that, which is great, but I think part of being in a Catholic school is that we have our own community. We take care of our own community first. We start there.”

Second- and third-place winners received ribbons at an assembly, while first-place finishers were given a turkey to donate to one of the families. Every participant received a certificate for running in the race.