Serve-A-Thon By the Numbers

Our students just completed our Serve-A-Thon season for the 2015-2016 school year. This is the 10th year that we held Serve-A-Thon, our fall “season of service” in the community, the kick-off to our year-long Character in Action class service projects and our annual fundraiser.

While there was a lot that remained the same with Serve-A-Thon this year some parts looked different. The first change we made is that we increased our “season of service” from just one week to three weeks. The second and third reasons it looked different is that we reduced the length of time for our annual fundraising AND we created fundraising teams (classes) instead of having individual students bring in donations. As you can imagine, tweaking a program brings with it wonderful benefits and sometimes, it brings challenges as well and we experienced both this year. But the bottom line is this – Serve-A-Thon was a rousing success! Our 3 weeks of service allowed us to move our 3rd grade service project to another date when Hurricane Joaquin threatened to visit in early October. And in 9 weeks we raised the same amount of money for the school as we did in 12 weeks last year!

As we look back on these last 9 weeks, there are many noteworthy items we want to share with you. Let’s do this by the numbers, shall we?

$63,979.70 – Total raised for Christian Education here and around the world

1890 – “Character” points awarded to classes during the 9 weeks of Serve-A-Thon. These points were awarded in increments of 50 or 100 when teachers observed students (other than their own) behaving in a way that went above and beyond normal expectations.

15 Nate1800 – Wipes used by 1st grade students to clean every desk, bookcase, dry erase board tray, trash can, cords, and chairs in every classroom of the school.

493 – Transactions/donations made to Serve-A-Thon teams.

423 – Pairs of gloves used by 1st grade students as they cleaned.

374 – Students who participated in Serve-A-Thon.

carepacks100 – Carepacks assembled by students at Garfield Elementary School in DC and Annandale Terrace Elementary in Annandale with the help of Upper School Students.

55 – Bags of snow grass collected by 4th grade students at Nottaway Park.

52 – Feet of walkway cleared of weeds by 3rd grade students at Hidden Pond Nature Center.

5th Grade_Washing trucks30 – Bags of mulch spread around the IBC/ICS building by kindergarten students (and their parents).

12 -Emergency vehicles washed by 5th grade students.

6 – Inflatables rented for studentsto enjoy at the ICS Indoor Fun Park for “U Did It Day,” a day to celebrate the top 5 teams who raised the most money for Serve-A-Thon.

3 – Overseas Christian schools (in India, Romania, and Rwanda) who will each receive $2,132 from ICS because of Serve-A-Thon.

2 – Classes who will have ice cream sundaes on Tuesday. Congratulations to 1A and 1B who came in 6th and 7th place for fundraising.

1 – God. There is only one true God. He’s who we serve and why ICS exists.

pano of gym with inflatablesAs always, we are so thankful for the many hands that make our community service projects and Serve-A-Thon celebration  possible and for the amazing generosity of family and friends who gave financially to Serve-A-Thon . We couldn’t do this without you – and we didn’t.

This blog post was written by Jenny Britton, Communications Manager at ICS.