The PE Fundraiser That Builds Character and Compassion

At Pleasant Lane Elementary, I teach health and physical education to students in grades K-5. Each year, I look for meaningful ways to help them grow as learners and as kind, confident individuals. This year’s health. moves. minds.® fundraiser brought our school community together around movement, character and compassion in an especially powerful way.

Our initial goals became something bigger — both in dollars raised and in lessons learned. I hope our story inspires you to bring this same experience to your health and physical education students.

Set Fundraising Goals

Our initial fundraising goal was to raise $6,000 to purchase a Gopher scooter board pack and donate to a local nonprofit organization, while also supporting SHAPE America and IAHPERD.

Our students met that initial goal early, so we updated it to $8,000!

Launch With Energy: Communication and Kickoff

To get students, families and staff excited about the fundraiser, we used multiple communication channels. We sent flyers home, posted regular updates on our school’s communication platform, and talked about the fundraiser daily in PE classes.

For our kickoff event, we welcomed Camryn Biegalski from the Chicago Stars FC to speak to all PE classes. She shared her journey as a professional soccer player and explained how she used health. moves. minds. character pillars — self-awareness, focus, respect, trustworthiness, creativity, and life-long learning — to navigate challenges on and off the field.

During the kickoff, students had the chance to participate in fun soccer drills, connecting movement with teamwork and character.

Combine Character Education and Movement

We loved using the health. moves. minds. lessons, which were tied to movement and character education. These lessons came to life in every PE class, as students cheered each other on and helped one another. They also loved sharing the lessons at home!

Here are some of the important lessons my students learned:

Self-Awareness: Understanding how actions affect self and others. Students practiced this during a Team Tower Challenge Game as they had to work together to come up with strategies on building a tower out of PE equipment and eventually throwing balls at other team towers while protecting their own.
Focus: Paying attention and practicing mindfulness during activities. Including a Mindful Minute during morning announcements and using calming music and breathing exercises at the end of PE class were great for getting students to be calm and focused.
Respect: Encouraging classmates and supporting teamwork. During the fundraiser timeframe, PE classes were doing a golf unit. We did specific activities where students were encouraged to be aware of everyone’s differing abilities with the golf skills and exhibit patience and respect while practicing driving and putting.
Lifelong Learning and Creativity: Trying new skills in imaginative ways. During the golf unit, student teams created their own miniature golf course holes. They combined teamwork with creative thinking to build super fun holes to putt on!
Trustworthiness: Following rules and supporting peers. Students participated in a team-building scooter activity where they had to help each other “cross a river” together and learn to trust their teammates as they pushed and pulled each other across. After finishing this activity, one kindergarten student said, “I like helping my friends ride on the scooter. It makes me happy!”

Empower Students to Choose the Charity

One of the most meaningful parts of the fundraiser was letting students vote on which charity to support. After learning about V.E.T. Service Dogs NFP during our school’s Veterans Day assembly, the students chose to support this local nonprofit organization. They understood the importance of service dogs in helping veterans with independence, confidence and well-being.

Thanks to students’ efforts during the health. moves. minds. fundraiser, we donated $1,000 and received a heartfelt thank-you note from the organization.

The students were thrilled to see the real-world impact of their fundraising efforts, as expressed in the quotes below:

“It felt awesome knowing our running, jumping and games helped a veteran get a service dog.”

“I liked voting for the charity because I wanted to help our veterans. It felt really important.”

Use Fun Incentives to Keep Students Engaged

During the fundraiser, incentives kept the energy high and gave students something fun to work toward. Here are some of the incentives we included:

Post-it® Note Mrs. Fernandez: Students covered me in sticky notes.
PE “No No” Day: Students to break the usual rules with activities like throwing poly spots and diving on mats.
Top Goal Slime: Student slimed me, the principal and another teacher. It was messy, fun and memorable!

Navigate Challenges

Some students initially struggled to stay motivated, and a few families needed extra guidance with fundraising tools. Here’s what helped:

Holding mini check-ins. Every day during the fundraiser, I spoke to the students while standing near the donation thermometer, character pillar posters and other fundraiser displays. This was really helpful in motivating students.
Sending clear instructions home. I sent notifications home to parents reminding them of our goals and deadlines, while also encouraging them to talk with their child about the activities and character pillars we were engaging in during PE class.
Celebrating small milestones weekly. The keychain incentives were a big hit! I also had classroom and grade-level rewards like an extra PE class during recess and letting students pick the game in we played that day.

Reflection and adaptability helped maintain excitement and momentum throughout the fundraiser.

Beyond the Gym

The health. moves. minds. fundraiser reminded everyone that when students move with purpose, learn with open hearts, and support causes bigger than themselves, the impact extends far beyond the gym. As one student said after the experience:

“I loved knowing we could help someone outside of school. It made me feel proud!”

Through this program, our students developed:

Physical skills
Empathy and responsibility
Teamwork and confidence

If you would like to have the same impact in your school, learn more about health. moves. minds. You’ll be glad you did!

Additional Resources

Carrie Fernandez

Carrie Fernandez is a physical education teacher at Pleasant Lane Elementary School in Lombard, Illinois. She has been teaching for 15 years and her passion for instilling the importance of lifelong fitness and health shines through in her school’s PE program. She provides an inclusive environment based on respect, safety, communication and enjoyment of physical activities.