The first Read and Run 5K, hosted by the National Honors Society (NHS) raised $2,305 to give back to PISD elementary schools on Saturday, March 18.
“The whole point was to get the community to come together to support the elementary schools,” NHS Co-President, senior Daniel Wang said.
Money raised from the 5K is going into purchasing Ozobots, small robots that give an introduction to coding for the students in an interactive and fun way.
“The Read and Run 5K began last summer when senior Claire Gilmore, the NHS president at Plano West, reached out to the other presidents with the idea of having the three schools host an event to support the school district,” Wang said.
Extensive planning went into this event to make it happen. It involved teamwork between the three senior highs.
“The presidents of Plano West Senior High, Plano Senior High, and Plano East Senior High NHS met up once every two months to discuss the logistics behind the event,” NHS President, senior Nisha Rajesh said. “We had to contact school admin, the PISD board, and school coaches to approve the event and begin preparations for the actual track.”
The event underwent many preparations over a long period of time. It also served as a way help bring students, parents and teachers together to show support for PISD.
“We saw it as a great opportunity for the three schools to do something together and to show the elementary students that the senior highs are invested in their education and want to see them succeed,” Wang said.
Students from all over PISD showed up to show their support and to participate in the run. This included students from all grade levels.
“I wanted to run in it because I’ve never done a 5k before, and it also counted as a project for NHS. My friend and I only ended up running about one third of the 5k because we aren’t very athletic, but it was still a lot of fun,” senior Natalie Weisz said.
Along with the Read and Run 5K being a fundraiser, it was also a competition to see which senior high school would have the most turnout. This could have served as an incentive for some of the runners.
“Plano West won the competition aspect of the event with nearly 75 percent of the registered runners being from its school,” Rajesh said.
According to Wang the event ran smoothly, although there were a few glitches here and there. They are hoping to continue to plan this event for the years to come and get an even bigger turn out.
“Seeing the spirit wear from all three senior highs as well as Renner, McMillan, and Huan fly by as runners crossed the finish line, made me feel like we found an event that will continue to do that in the years to come,” Wang said.