This is the third year of hosting our club, and we are looking forward to helping your child build stamina, set goals, persist, and succeed! We are proud of our 70 members for making the commitment to participate in this club with us. Our club is led by 6 dedicated coaches from our Ishikawa staff who work hard to motivate and empower our students each week.

The Ishikawa running club meets every Monday immediately after school until 3:15. We begin each of our sessions in the library where we lead the students in some activities. These range from writing assignments related to what the three areas of Run3rd stand for, why I am a member of the running club, learning about goal setting, what success is when out running, how we work through adversity, as well as how running can benefit me. When we head outside we run in three areas – the perimeter of the playground, the track at Stapley Junior High, and the sidewalks on 32nd Street on the east west side of school. When we are on the sidewalks we teach our runners safe strategies to use if and when a vehicle approaches.

As a member of this club, the main goal is to build up our running in order to participate in the Run3rd 5K Race on March 28 of 2020, which is held at Red Mountain High School. This is a 3.1 mile event in which hundreds of students and families get to participate in a real, well-run, race type experience.

We have many of our students registered for the 5k and are working hard during running club to prepare for race day. We would like to invite family members to join us as well!

To register to run or walk with your child, go to: https://run3rd5k.enmotive.com/arizona-5k -

History on the RUN3rd 5k:

On April 11th, 2015 the Przeors hosted the Inaugural #RUN3rd 5k. This event was sparked by their friendship with actor Sean Astin and his #RUN3rd twitter campaign. In 2012, Sean prompted the world with his mission - I run 1st for myself, I run 2nd for my family, I #RUN3rd for YOU - from that, he asked for everyone to submit dedications he could carry with him through the LA Marathon. From that day, #RUN3rd grew into a global twitter community and Sean was looking for a way to bring people together in person. A couple years later, Mrs. Mindy Przeor, coach at Zaharis Elementary, began developing #RUN3rd lessons to bring to her Brinton Running Club students. Sean loved what they were doing and came out to help us raise funds for after-school running programs by hosting a 5k. Since then it has become an annual event and, to date, we have donated over $50,000 to support running programs in the district.

Fees: Participating in our running club is free and a couple of the events will be free for your child if he/she attends practices and keeps track of his/her mileage. Shirts, sweatshirts and other events will be additional, optional costs. As much as we can, we will use the money raised from our 5k along with ECA money to cover these costs – but, that means we need people to donate to ECA. Any AZ taxpayer gets a dollar for dollar tax credit for ECA donations. In order for your ECA donation to be used for the Ishikawa Running Club, please follow the links and make sure you select to donate to the Ishikawa General Fund – specify PE Department. THANKS!

For donors outside AZ:

Mail this form along with a short letter stating
how you would like your donation used to:
Ishikawa Elementary c/o Gregg Veitel
2635 N. 32nd Street

Mesa, AZ 85213

Student Quotes:

"I love running a lot! After doing running club last year I liked it, so I wanted to do it again!"
Hyrum H., 5th Grade

"I joined running club because I felt I needed some time after school to calm myself and be patient with myself."
Raylyn W., 3rd Grade

"I joined running club because I wanted to stay in shape and jog with my friends."
Keegan S., 5th Grade

"I joined running club to become a faster player for baseball, soccer, and more."
Connor C., 5th Grade

Ishikawa Elementary

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