$43K raised: Elma PTA Fun Run exceeds fundraising goal
Published 1:30 am Monday, April 6, 2026
After 10 days of fundraising, Elma Elementary School students raised $42,939 during the Fun Run, an annual spring fundraiser for the Elma Parent Teacher Association (PTA).
“We were blown away as our goal was $30,000 because that’s about what we need every year to fully function as a PTA and be able to do all the things that we normally like to do and contribute to,” said Alisa Dietz, a member of the PTA.
The Fun Run kicked off on March 16, and each day featured a new challenge with incentives to keep the kids excited, said Dietz. On the first day, if 50 percent of the students registered for the Fun Run, the entire school would win a pajama party. On the third day, the class bringing in the most new donations won the Teacher’s Choice Reward.
And on the eighth day, registered students would be entered into a drawing, with four winners receiving $25 Scholastic dollars for spending at the upcoming Spring Book Fair.
The Elma PTA has already allocated a portion of the funds for a playground project that will begin this summer.
“We got our idea basically from last year. Our funds went toward remodeling our covered play area,” Dietz said. “And as we were walking around the playground, we noticed that our basketball hoops were very much need of being redone. … We really need some new hoops out here for our kids.”
A significant portion of this project will be covered by a $18,000 grant the Grays Harbor Community Foundation awarded the Elma PTA.
“Some of the project actually involves creating a whole new set up for the hoop because some of our hoops, like on our kindergarten playground, are unusable because they’re so high,” said Dietz. “We’re going to be moving them so it’s a whole new set up.”
The new basketball hoops will be installed this summer by Buell Recreation, a company that the school contracts with.
And it won’t just be new basketball hoops that students will see when they begin the 2026-2027 school year.
“We have a couple other little surprises that will also go in with that install this summer,” Dietz said.
Other activities that the Elma PTA anticipates funding in the 2026-2027 school year are buying school supplies for when school starts, Thanksgiving breakfast for staff, a Santa’s Workshop and staff appreciation week. And for those students who participated in the Missoula Children’s Theatre production this year, Dietz said they plan to do that again next year.
With the books now closed on the Fun Run, “we’re just so thankful for our community to step up and help us do good for our kids and be able to provide all these fun things,” said Dietz. “We’re speechless with what happened this year. This was one of the best fun runs we’ve ever had when it comes to donations.”
