'Leader Launch' Complements Student Character Lessons

“Brave Dave”
shares a biblical
lesson with
students during
the daily in-class
lesson time.
Fulfilling a
promise to the
primary grades,
Principal Luci
O’Byrne makes
friends with
a python .
High school students wrote notes of encouragement to the elementary students as part of the Boosterthon program.
Changing the World: A Q&A Session with Boosterthon
Seniors Blake
Averitt, Trey
Standifer and
Rachel Munson
served as lap
counters during
the middle
school Fun Run.
AAfter the LCS Boosterthon Fun Run,
Central Florida Area Leader Matt Nolan
and Central Florida Team Leader Todd
Henriksen sat down to talk about the
Boosterthon program, how Lakeland Christian
School succeeded in its first year and how the
ultimate goal of the Boosterthon program is to
Change the World (CTW).
Q: How did the Boosterthon program start
A: The program started 10 years ago. Our
president Chris Carneal and his wife Lyndie
started a sports tutoring business at Samford
University. Chris took the idea of a walkathon
for fitness, leadership and character, and he
molded it together.
Q: How many schools do you serve in Florida
A: The Boosterthon program is new to Florida in
the last two years. Right now, we’re serving
75-80 schools in Florida – both public and
private. In central Florida, we’ll do Fun Runs at
about 50 schools this year, including The First
Academy, Orangewood, The Christ School,
Master’s Academy and the Geneva School.
Q: What is the ultimate goal of the program
A: We want to challenge students that fitness
is fun, that having character is cool, and we
Third grade teacher Patty Johnson, who broke her leg this past summer,
zooms onto the Boosterthon track with her motorized wheelchair.
want to challenge students to become leaders.
The mission of Boosterthon is CTW – Change
the World. We’re promoting the values of
fitness, leadership and character to more than
265,000 students this year.
Q: How are you fulfilling the mission to
Change the World
A: CTW is a nonprofit foundation. A portion of
the Boosterthon profits from each school goes
to serve impoverished areas such as New
Orleans, Memphis, Atlanta and Dallas. This
past summer, we did a Water for Kenya 5K and
raised $25,000 for clean water in Kenya.
Q: How much money did Lakeland
Christian profit
A: Approximately $51,000.
Q: How does Boosterthon use their cut of
the pledges
A: Of the total money raised, we use our
portion to cover expenses for the program,
such as lanyards, prizes, shirts, keeping our
website up, etc. After the expenses are
covered, we then use the profits to turn
around and do a summer mission trip.
We reinvest in the program to make the
program better each year.
During the opening pep rally, students competed in a “Minute to Win It”
challenge while the Boosterthon team cheered them on.
Fifth grade teacher
Mrs. Cathy Powers marks
off the number of laps that
the students ran.
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