Just recently Kaitaia Primary held their annual Adidas Fun Run. The school has been doing this event for four years now and love that it is a healthy and easy way to fundraise, coupled with taking the financial pressure off the local community by being able to seek sponsorship online.

Principal Brendon Morrissey, encourages other schools to take up the challenge and organise their own Adidas Fun Run.  “Each year we have changed it up; last year we had a black-out tunnel that was in the hall that the children had to crawl through. It absolutely poured down and so this year we were well prepared with the course all under cover. The theme for this year was ‘Over Under’ - we hired the Rock up Volcano to be included in the start and includes the senior’s playground”.

The aim of the fun run is to participate and complete the course correctly and safely, it’s not a race. Everyone who finished received a certificate of participation and because participants fulfilled the requirements of their sponsorship, they earned prizes which included items like scooters, plasma balls, sports and craft equipment, remote car/helicopter and even a drone.

Brendon found it best to register and setup the school profile page 6 weeks prior to the initial run to generate interest and start the fundraising, two weeks before holidays, two weeks of holidays and two weeks after holidays seem to work best. Brendon says “having a supporters page with direct debit linked to Facebook usually generates 3 times more than a child without online availability.  On average the school is raising $5000. With 10% going towards support material, 30% to prizes and 60% going to the school - which the school divides over all the classrooms to go towards their class trips and camps.” An added advantage of using the Adidas Fun Run as a school fundraiser that Kaitaia Primary loved, was that there is very little teacher time involved in organizing this kind of event. Also the actual event took up just half an hour of the students and teachers time on the day.

Brendon highlights the holistic benefits that a fun run can bring and that there is a student who is very shy and does not like loud noise. This student completed the whole course with their teacher aide and was able to write a story on their own about the experience, something they had never done before. This just goes to show the more holistic benefits of being involved in a school event such as a fun run.

To find out more about the Adidas fun run go to Click here