Donating to a Public School: Support Underfunded Schools

 Your donation could help reach more than one underfunded school, help thousands of children, and bridge the funding gap.

How Are Schools Funded?

Schools are primarily funded by the government through taxes and public funding. Local districts use property taxes to fund schools, and the economic condition or tax base of the area influences the amount of funding the schools receive. This discrepancy in funding creates funding gaps. 

Districts with a lower tax base suffer the consequences of poorly funded schools. Poorly funded schools rob millions of children of the opportunity to succeed due to limited access to necessary tools and resources.

Underfunded School Gap

Underfunded School Demographics

High-poverty schools receive significantly less money per child each year.

Impact of Underfunded Schools

• Lower Quality of Education

• Limited Extracurricular Activities

• Limited Advanced Courses

• Limited Educational Resources

How Much Money is Donated a Year?

On average one in three people will donate to a charity around the world and cash giving is around 500 billion dollars. In 2022 charitable giving decreased 3.4% and an estimated $499.33 billion was raised.

Benefits of Donating to Charity

Helpers High

An NIH study found that when people give to charities, the regions in the brain associated with pleasure, social connection, and trust are activated, releasing endorphins in the brain, a feeling known as “the helper’s high.”

Mental Health

It feels good to help others, studies show that acts of kindness like donating to a charity has a positive impact on happiness. Regular acts of kindness or practicing gratitude have been linked to improve mental health because it creates more interaction between the parts of the brain associated with processing social information and feeling pleasure. The brain produces more dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin which positively impact mood and disposition. 

Community

Finding and creating community is one of the most important parts of being human. Giving back to your community can help you feel more connected not just to other people but where you live and the world as a whole. 

 

Impact

Charitable donations are a great opportunity to make an impact on the lives of others. For example, a donation to Fitness Finders Foundation helps provide equipment, incentives, and support for young participants to learn about teamwork, goal-setting, self-confidence, overall health and wellbeing both mentally and physically through Mileage Club Program. 

When you give to charity, you can help positively impact the next generation. Charitable donations can provide a sense of purpose and fulfillment knowing that your actions are going to a good cause that is dear to your heart.

Tax-Deductible

Donations to charities and nonprofit organizations are often tax-deductible. Fitness Finders Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity, donations qualify for a tax deduction.

Why Donate to a Non-Profit?

Each year, individuals, bequests, corporations, and foundations donate billions of dollars to charities. When you donate to Fitness Finders Foundation, you’re helping to promote health and well-being among children in underfunded schools. 

How Can You Help?

Take a holistic approach to wellness through Fitness Finders Foundation. Founded by Dr. Charles K and his wife with a mission to enhance the health of people across the globe. In 1986 the Mileage Club walk/run program was created to offer knowledge, support, and tools to track physical activity. 

The Mileage Club Program has helped millions of children over the last 40 years to increase their physical fitness level, cognitive thinking and learning, manage behavior and emotions.

So what does Mileage Club have to do with underfunded schools and how can you help?

By donating to Fitness Finders Foundation Mileage Club GoFund.Me Fundraiser, you allow us to provide equipment, incentives, and support for children in underfunded schools. We can help students who are missing out on receiving proper education, brain breaks, fitness programs, etc. around the globe.

How Will Fitness Finders Foundation Use My Donation?

With your support and donations, Fitness Finders Foundation can provide children with equipment, incentives, and support to promote health and well-being among children in underfunded schools through its Mileage Club Program.

Why Mileage Club?

• Fight Obesity

• Encourage Fitness

• Enhance Focus & Concentration

• Improve Overall Cognitive Function

• Foster Positive Habits

• Teach Teamwork

• Set Goals

• Build Self-Confidence

How to Donate?

Join our Mileage Club Campaign and help contribute to our $50,000 goal which will directly benefit schools lacking resources for physical education. You can make a difference by donating today.

Meeting SHAPE Distance Learning Guidelines

We have selected a handful of action points from the SHAPE Distance Learning Guidelines on the left and show how Fitness Finders can help you meet them on the right.

Curriculum

“Continually assess and revise online courses to keep up with trends, technology, and content.”

Fitness Finders does this for you! Our EZ Scan® app automatically updates at no extra cost and works with the latest devices. Content changes are based on current trends in physical education and feedback from users in all 50 states.

“Address all state and/or national physical education content standards, including any other required standards (Common Core, ELA, Technology, etc.).”

Getting the recommended 60 minutes of activity a day is no problem with Mileage Club®. Mileage Club works before, during, or after school. It can be done outdoors, indoors, and even at home. And it’s an easy, low-cost way to get and keep kids moving. Mileage Club is flexible, accommodates all students, and kids love the rewards. It is the best way to meet multiple state and national standards for physical activity.

Learning Environment

“Get parents involved with their child’s learning.”	Parents can be involved in Mileage Club in many ways! From simple encouragement as children reach their goals to walking laps with them. Parents can be there for their kids every step of the way! With EZ Scan, teachers can share their child’s individual reports with parents to keep them up-to-date on progress. For greater involvement, teachers can send the EZ Scan Activity Recording Sheet & Instruction or a QR Card with instructions home to parents.
“Allow for student choice so students can choose where, when, and how to be physically active.”	Flexibility is a critical component of Mileage Club® and EZ Scan®. Complete laps any time of day - anywhere! Set a course anywhere you’d like and record laps, reps, and minutes of activity – anyway, they can be done! A great resource we offer is our EZ Scan Activity Recording Sheet & Instruction has the equivalency chart with the purpose of allowing the choice of exercise by converting any activity to minutes of walking/running. Available online or by mail.
“Balance screen time and physical activity time.”	With EZ Scan®, you can access reports that give time stamps and quickly let you see the amount of time spent walking/running!

Assessment

“Utilize technology to verify participation and support learning gains in physical activity to meet the CDC physical activity recommendations of 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous physical activity per day.”

As mentioned before - EZ Scan® will do this job for you! Just have the students scan their laps or minutes of activity. You’ll be able to generate reports with all of the information needed to know if students are getting their 60 minutes of exercise per day.

Standards-Based Instruction

“Students compare and contrast data collected (e.g., heart rate, video of the performance) against criteria and/or previous analyses.”	EZ Scan reports can be generated in any time frame that you’d like. So, comparing results from day-to-day or week-to-week will be a breeze. As an account administrator, you will just need to send them the data, such as the individual student report and timed run reports. Both of these would allow students to compare and contrast their progress over time.
“Students generate data (e.g., heart rate, number of sit-ups, etc.) by performing health-related physical fitness assessments.”	Let EZ Scan make your timed run very EZ. Students simply scan a QR card with each completed lap. The report details the # of laps, total time, and splits for each student.
“Students choose, present and/or discuss relevant assessments to measure a physical fitness component (e.g., muscular strength, agility, coordination)”	EZ Scan reports provide relevant metrics related to distance and frequency as well as progress overtime. Also, equivalencies give a great framework for time-based, calorie-based, and distance-based comparisons.

More Takeaways!

“One of the four essential components of physical education is assessment — the gathering of evidence about student achievement in all areas of instruction to make inferences about student progress.”	An assessment has never been such a quick task! The reports generated from an EZ Scan account can give you all the data you need to present to students, parents, and administration showing off how much they have accomplished in your run club in a given timeframe. One great example is the Timed Run reports.
“Activity tracker - Activity trackers are wearable devices or computer applications that record daily physical activity along with other data relating to fitness or health, such as heart rate, the number of steps taken, or even calories burned.”	EZ Scan is the #1 lap tracking software on the market. Not to mention it is affordable – only $149.95/year and handles up to 1,500 students! Plus, if you ever need help, we offer free tech support Mon-Fri during our office hours.
“Verification of learning is perhaps one of the teachers’ biggest concerns with OLPE (Daum & Buscher, 2012; Trent 2016), while students struggle with the meaningfulness and challenge of assignments. Creators of online courses need to pay special attention to meaningful assessments that challenge students in real-world contexts.”	Verify that your students are learning by allowing them to complete the same exercises at school as they will at home. This can quickly be done with Mileage Club and equivalencies because, as we’ve mentioned, they can be completed anytime, anywhere, to give your students real-world context through independent work! When you choose to start a Mileage Club, it will be the last curriculum choice you have to make for incorporating structured physical activity. Mileage Club is so simple that you will only need to teach the lesson once. After that, students know to get their QR Scan card and scan as they complete laps to earn their awards. No more worrying about coming up with new lesson plans on the fly.
“All students must be afforded the same opportunities to participate in public school programs. The students must be provided accommodations and modifications as necessary, based on the individualized education program (IEP) team decisions.”	Mileage Club can be done by anyone, anywhere, any time of the day and our equivalencies make this even more true as they can turn any activity into minutes walked/ran, such as pushups if they are unable to go outside. You can accommodate all interests and abilities.
“Teachers must make more of a concerted effort to connect when in a distance learning environment. Students need to feel like part of their school community and that they are cared for to learn. Develop strategies to connect with students if your school/ district will not be facilitating online learning or if students will not be able to meet online due to limited accessibility at home (e.g., create assignments focused on getting to know each other, facilitate pen pals).”	Connect with students by achieving personal and group goals together! Start a Mileage Club program and keep track of their awards and data with EZ Scan. You can do this for one school, or connect your entire district! Plus, they will be able to participate in the same program from home or at school. When they have reached their goals, be sure to give them a physical reminder of their success, such as a Toe Token and a necklace to display it on.

Bonus Thoughts from Fitness Finders

“Do an inventory of your current curriculum and determine which lessons or activities can be repurposed as at-home work or for online use (depending on students’ access to technology). There may be lessons or activities within your current curriculum that can easily be adapted for students to complete at home or online.”	Mileage Club seamlessly adapts to a home learning setting. With EZ Scan, you just make sure your students have their QR card and can log in, and they can get moving. Parents are also able to help out by becoming scanners and supervisors. As an administrator, you can securely give parents access to EZ Scan to allow students to use the same software to complete laps like they would at school.
“Make sure expectations are realistic for students, especially for younger students if they require assistance from an adult to complete assignments. Consider the home dynamics of your students as referenced earlier in the section on Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility.”	Setting realistic expectations to be met from home can be a tough job. However, EZ Scan and Mileage club make this easy! Mileage Club can be done by anyone at any time. If they’re unable to complete laps, just have them use the equivalency chart. If they can complete laps, have them use EZ Scan to record their data. If they can’t use EZ Scan, just have them send you a recording sheet that you can manually enter into the system. Because EZ Scan is so simple and because we have you covered for all situations, you can expect all of your students to get the proper amount of activity at home without making it unrealistic.
“Can special events or activities still be done remotely (e.g., At-Home Family Field Day)?”	Mileage Club creates consistency because it can be done both at school and at home. So, if the time comes where you have a shift to online learning, your curriculum is already setup, and the students know exactly what to do! The program can be done at the same time each day, and completing laps for mileage is a consistent activity by nature as each can be done the same way each time. Special events and activities can still be done at home, just like at school. Host field days, award days, jog-a-thons, or even just daily sessions remotely with ease. This allows you to maintain critical ESL components of teaching and will give your students structured activities that can be done when they are away from school. This is also true even if some students are learning from home while some are in class.

Why Does Fitness Finders® Use Incentive Awards?

Did you know that Fitness Finders® incentive based system is known as a token economy? Token economies feature cards, “tokens”, or money to encourage or deter behavior.

But why does a token economy work? Why do tokens encourage positive behavior and how has this model become so successful?

Tokens Are Earned

At the foundation of token economies is the understanding that an incentive must be earned, that not everyone gets it and therefore it has value. If every child received a Toe Token® for running, regardless of distance, the Toe Token® would lose some of its motivational power. 

For example, Fitness Finders® doesn’t sell Toe Tokens® to parents to be used as gifts because this dilutes the value of earning the award. 

Tokens Are Scarce

Tokens hold a lot of value when the student has accomplished something, and when everyone else knows what action they took to receive the token. Challenges and goals add to the incentive, but account for the development and ability of the students. It is important to set achievable but ambitious goals.

Tokens Are Fun

Our tokens work with children because they are fun. We offer over 600 unique awards in 180 different bright, eye-catching colors.

With so many variations, colors, and styles, token selection could easily get overwhelming. But don’t worry! We will happily help you find the perfect award for your situation, or let your students vote on tokens that they want to earn!

Charles Kuntzleman, Founder of Fitness Finders, said, “Select incentives that are visible, countable, attractive, and perceived as highly valuable by the recipients.”

Tokens Set the Stage for Lifelong Lessons

Not only are token encouraging in the present, but they can also motivate students into the future. To facilitate this lifelong impact, Kuntzleman suggests periodically reminding students of the importance of the activity behind the token. This means communicating why the desired behavior is beneficial in life and how it can impact students in a positive way.

Even if the students remain focused on tokens in the moment, they will look back one day and remember the lessons emphasized.

At the end of the day, the desired behavior is the ultimate goal. Tokens just happen to be a fun, motivational, and inexpensive way to increase participation and effort. So get some tokens and tackle those goals!

Preserving the Planet: One Token at a Time

Do you ever wonder what Fitness Finders uses to make our tokens? Read on for a full explanation, straight from our manufacturing and product team.

Not Just any Plastic

According to howstuffworks.com, there are two main categories of plastic; thermosets and thermoplastics. Thermosets harden upon heating, are more rigid, and involve an irreversible chemical reaction. Thermoplastics harden upon cooling and can be reheated and reused.

Marv Moss, Head of the Manufacturing Department, stated that all of Fitness Finders plastic products are made out of thermoplastics.

“Working with thermoplastics allows us to reuse scrap plastic from the molding process,” said Marv. “We grind all scraps into pellets and use them to make future tokens.”

Marv said the re-melting process results in small breakdown of physical properties. To compensate, they add a calculated percentage of fresh plastic to each batch of reground plastic.

“By adding the fresh plastic to each reground batch, we can regrind and reuse indefinitely,” said Marv. “This reduces our waste to almost zero percent.” 

Environmental Bundle

Kellie Fairbanks, Product Manager, said Fitness Finders offers an environmental token bundle with a recycle symbol, a raindrop, a tree, a walker, a globe, and a biker. These tokens are purposed to encourage youth to establish a “green” attitude toward environmental stewardship. Fitness Finders took this “green” attitude upon themselves, and developed a special token material to fit the need.

“Several of our tokens, like the globe and the recycle symbol, are available as a biodegradable product,” said Marv.

These tokens are made of paper and other biodegradable elements that will decompose back into the environment if dropped outside.

Responsible Waste Management

In addition to re-using plastic and utilizing biodegradable material, Fitness Finders also implements responsible waste disposal practices.

Marv said whenever they change the oil of the molding machines, or catch oil from a leaking machine, they collect the oil, now unsuitable for its original purpose, and keep it in drums. Then Fitness Finders re-distributes it to a company that implements it as fuel for their waste oil heating unit.

Fitness Finders is also careful to prevent improper contaminated water disposal.

“When we come across a waste water and oil mixture, we take it to be treated.”



April is Environmental Awareness Month, which provides a great opportunity to talk about sustainability and green manufacturing. But every day at Fitness Finders, we strive to preserve the planet, one token at a time.

Oscars Acceptance Speech: Fitness Finders Wants to Thank You!

If Fitness Finders, Inc. were to win an Oscar tonight, this is how our "Thank the Academy...” speech would go…

“Wow! What an incredible honor. Teachers, parents, school administration—Thank you all, we could not have done it without you. As you know, it takes a village to raise a child. 

Teachers

Thank you for sharing in our enthusiasm for helping kids develop positive habits. Our commitment to provide program incentives and curriculums falls short without your hard work and creativity. We applaud your efforts to create a cycle of excitement, motivation, and achievement for children by utilizing programs such as Mileage Club®, Pack-a-Snack®, and I Love to Read®. We love hearing about how you use tokens to teach and motivate your students. Every time that we work together, we are partnering for a better future.

Parents

You are a wonderful encouragement to your children! Thank you for affirming their efforts by asking to see their hard-earned tokens. A big thank you for setting a good example by eating healthy, exercising regularly, and reading with your kids. We could not do what we do without your impact in the home. 

School Administration

Thank you for investing in our mission to Shape America’s Future. Thank you for supporting your faculty’s passion, creativity, and dedication to children. You work for grants, take the time for purchase orders, do research, and endlessly hunt for funding. We recognize the challenges you face. 

Closing Remarks

It has been an incredible journey since our business started in 1969. One of our foundational beliefs is that early developed habits significantly influence lifelong potential. Thank you all for believing in our mission, and sharing in the joy of investing in our future leaders.”

Heart Month: Protect a Teacher's Heart

Heart Month

In the month of February, the heart gets a lot of attention. Of course, there is the symbolic red heart, with its swooping, rounded top and pointed bottom. We see it everywhere as Valentine’s Day approaches. But what about the most important heart? The one that is inside of us.

The Heart of Fitness Finders

Here at Fitness Finders, heart healthiness is a major focus, stemming all the way back to the passion of our founder, Charles Kuntzleman. He even wrote about this in his book, “Instructors Guide for Feelin’ Good,” stating that regular exercise will make the heart stronger and more efficient. Exercise decreases resting heart rate, so the heart is not nearly as strained as we move through everyday life. That is why you will see a heart shaped eyelet in every Toe Token® in our Mileage Club® program.

The Heart of a Classroom

A passionate, encouraged, and supported teacher is like a healthy heart...
     Thump Thump — A kindergartener recites the alphabet
     Thump Thump — A fight is broken up
     Thump Thump — A first grader learns, “I’m sorry”
     Thump Thump — 30 research papers are graded, just in time for bed
But the pulse behind education can gradually weaken if the teacher's heart goes unprotected. "Those kids become ours in a way," said Betty Lindquist, an elementary school teacher with 27 years of experience. "We want to do everything right for them, and that can result in stress buildup."

Protecting a Teacher's Heart

"Teachers need support from administration, constant encouragement, and an outlet like exercise," said Betty. "I used to walk with other teachers to give us space and release the stress of the day, as well as encourage each other. "

Here are some other ideas of how you can reinforce a teacher’s heart’s defense:

• Anyone: Reconnect with a favorite teacher. Thank them for their influence on your life and update them on how you have put your education to work. 
• Kids: Say something nice to your teacher, at least once per week. 
• Parents: Send an encouraging email, thanking your child’s teacher for hard work. 
• Teachers: Establish support systems within your network of coworkers. Encourage each other and vent stress when necessary. Consider a structured fitness program like The Mega Mileage Club®, to keep you moving and working toward a goal together. 

"The heart of teaching will always be in me," said Betty. "There is nothing like seeing those light bulb moments and grounding students in the love of learning."