By Sarah Kim, Cerritos High School, Grade 10___
May 16, 2011
On Saturday, April 31st, 2011 Cerritos High School’s Make-A-Wish Club held its 2nd annual Walk-A-Thon. This event helped to raise money to grant the wishes of many children with [terminal] medical conditions.
The Walk-A-Thon consisted of three main activities. First, volunteers and students of Cerritos High School had to choose between running and walking. The runners were given a number, and the club officers tallied how many laps they ran. For the boys, Jonathan Liang came in first, and, for the girls, Keilani Trias finished first.
The walkers, on the other hand, were not tallied; instead each walker wore a placard that represented the child they were sponsoring for. Christine Truong, one of the walkers, enthusiastically remarked, “I represented Jessie, age 6, who has a brain tumor and wishes to be a horse doctor. Today, I felt as though I did a good cause by donating and walking for this girl who has suffered so much. I really wish her dream would come true, and I thank Make-A-Wish for making her dream more accessible.”
Some other children include: Andrew, age 12, who wished to go to the US Open; Dhanush, age 7, who wished to go visit the doctor who saved his life; Brycen, age 4, who wished to have his own baseball field and Kate, age 11, who wished to design the ‘Creation’ for the World’s Largest Ice Cream Social.
After the run-walk was done, the Walk-A-Thon members cooled down by playing a quick game with water balloons. Having walked and ran in the heat, participants enjoyed splashing their friends with water.
For the finale of the fundraiser, there was a raffle. Winners were awarded coupons and tickets to Rubio’s and Starbucks.
“We were glad to see many participants at the event…We raised over $500 and this money will go strictly towards the children to grant their wishes. Through this event, we hope our participants gained a sense of pride and understanding from helping others. Also, in recent years, the CHS Make-A-Wish was able to grant the wishes of many children and has donated over $5,000 to the foundation,” stated Eunsol Kim, the Make-A-Wish Club Representative.
Wendy Tang, the club president also concluded, “The walkathon was a success because the participants were able to learn more about our club. Before, no one knew about Make-A-Wish Foundation or our club. We improved that this year through the walk, publicity and multiple events.”
