"Would You Walk a Mile for $10,000?"

Would you walk a mile for $10,000? No, this is not a rhetorical question.

Alesa Weiskopf’s answer was a resounding yes, but she needed at least 99 other people to say yes, too. Spoiler alert: mission accomplished.

In early 2018, Alesa, the principal of Little Flower School in Mobile, Alabama, got an offer she just couldn’t refuse. Little Flower hosts two ACE Teaching Fellows and has partnered with ACE since it began 25 years ago. Daniel Duffey, the president of The Charity Chase, invited the school to be one of the beneficiaries represented at the fifth annual Charity Chase, which is a non-profit 5K and Fun Run designed to generate funds, awareness, and excitement for multiple nonprofit organizations at once. Alesa explained, “Basically, if we got 100 people interested in coming out to walk for Little Flower, this anonymous donor would pay us $10,000. That’s not how it normally works, but that was the boost we needed to get things going.”

With the event less than three weeks away, Little Flower was going to need all the supporters it could muster and quickly. It was responsible for all of its publicity, so the school advertised it on their website, its Facebook page, and to anyone who would listen. “We got out there and hustled all our families. It was our job then to try to get these parishioners, parents, basically anyone who might be interested in donating to Little Flower,” Alesa said.

The day before the event, Little Flower held a pep rally and took that opportunity to get everyone pumped up for the next morning. Although they don’t have an official cheerleading squad–yet–the school gym was packed and spirits were high. Pompoms waving, the cheerleaders got the crowd on their feet. “Those girls did that themselves! During their PE time and after school, they got together and they wanted to put on a little pep rally. They did great and were so excited,” Alesa said.

First-year ACE Teaching Fellow Emma Solak enjoyed the show, “The girls do cheerleading little dances, the basketball boys get to show off their skills, and we have a spirit competition between the grades,” she said. “It’s nice to see the students unified around something. It’s fun!”

January 27. Race day had arrived. It was a dreary morning, and Alesa worried that people might not show up. Emma and her roommate and fellow first-year ACE teacher, Catherine Wagner had signed up to participate. “It was a cold, rainy day and (we) really had to convince ourselves to go.”

“Emma was out there walking and helping recruit,” Alesa remembers. “The ACE teachers at Little Flower, Emma and Helen Maduka are always quick to jump in and help with whatever we do.” As the minutes ticked by, one by one people started trickling in. By race time the inclement weather did little to dampen the spirits of the participants and supporters. The Charity Chase was on!

“We had a tent set up, there were other sponsors there who brought food and t-shirts, we had families come out, everybody had a wonderful time,” Alesa said. “It was just a wonderful community-building activity. That’s what was really astounding to me. We did have good parental support, but we also had a remarkable number of people from the parish and the community coming out saying, ‘Hey, we support Little Flower, too.’”

Little Flower’s publicity efforts paid off. Emma said, “There were people there from the superintendent, to the priests, down to students and teachers and families.”

Many of the students and young families showed up, but Alesa said, “We also had people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s out there walking in the Fun Run. It was a beautiful outreach of the parish and the community.”

When all was said and done, Little Flower earned over $10,000 that day. Alesa, on behalf of the school, wanted to show how grateful they all were. “You didn’t get a t-shirt for running–you know how sometimes these events do that–but they wanted as much money as possible to go back to the charities,” she said. As a small token of their thanks, Little Flower bought a t-shirt and got all the people who had participated in the run and the walk to sign it and sent it to the donor.

The substantial donation will go a long way toward covering Little Flower’s many expenses. Alesa said, “Our building was built in 1934, so this helps with upkeep of the school..”

Alesa and the Little Flower School community are grateful for having been given this opportunity. “People are going to come out (next year) because they had such a good time the first time,” she said.

Learn more about The Charity Chase at https://www.thecharitychase.com

Learn more about Little Flower Catholic School at http://www.littleflower.cc/school.html

Interested in ACE Teaching Fellows? Visit ace.nd.edu/teach