Due to recent surge in Covid cases involving children, and lack of participant registrations, This years event is being postponed until Spring 2022.  Keep and eye out for new Spring 2022 event information.  Thank you!

Why Organize a Run for Kids?

Childhood obesity is a serious problem.  In Iowa 28% of the children between 10 and 17 are obese.

Why are children obese?

A principle reason for childhood obesity is that children today are much less active physically than in years past.  Children spend too much time sitting in front of a screen instead of engaging in physical activities.

Why do we care if children are obese?

Obesity, including childhood obesity, is a significant contributing factor in the early onset of Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, kidney failure and cancer.

How will “Kids Run for Kids” help to reduce childhood obesity?

• It will be an event aimed at children age 12 and under.

• It will offer four different distances to encourage participation at any age and at any level of current fitness—a 1 K run, a 2 K run, a 3 K run, and a 5 K run.

• These will be runs—not races to encourage children to become runners and to “reward” all participants for finishing their run with a ribbon that shows the distance run.

• It will be a fun-filled family event with parents/grandparents/guardians/older-siblings encouraged to run with their child.

• It will be a fun-filled family event with child-centered, outdoor, family activities before, during, and after the runs.

Why structure “Kids Run for Kids” as a Fund-Raiser?

We want the participating kids and older family members to join with sponsors to benefit kids locally and internationally.

The net proceeds will go to advance three goals:
Goal One (1):  (40% of the net proceeds)
Every child and youth in Story County will have a positive image of law enforcement officers.
Goal Two (2):  (40% of the net proceeds)
Every child in Story County will enter kindergarten ready and eager to read.
Goal Three (3):  (20% of the net proceeds)
The health of children in Story County and beyond will be improved

What are some details for each Goal?

Goal (1):  Every child and youth in Story County will have a positive image of law enforcement officers.

We will provide funds to Story County law enforcement departments to support and expand the interactions of Story County law enforcement officers with Story county children and youth that they encounter at the Boys and Girls Club of Story County and at other community locations and events.  We want more Story County children and youth to view cops as “good guys” and “good gals.”

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Goal (2):  Every child in Story County will enter kindergarten ready and eager to read.

We will provide funds to Raising Readers in Story County to support, encourage, and promote early childhood literacy and hence to improve the elementary school achievement of children in Story County.

Goal (3):  The health of children in Story County and beyond will be improved.

In 2018 we will provide funds to:

• The Rotary Foundation for its Polio Plus Program that inoculates children of the world against polio.

• Clubfoot Solutions to buy braces used in the non-surgical Ponseti method for the correction of clubfoot among children of the world.

Why fund The Rotary Foundation’s Polio Plus Program?

• We want to help eradicate polio from our earth; thus benefiting children all around the world.

• Polio is an infectious disease caused by polioviruses that mainly affects children under 5 years old.  One in 200 infections leads to irreversible paralysis—usually in the legs.  Among those paralyzed, 5% to 10% die when their breathing muscles become immobilized.  There is no medical cure for polio.

• Prevention of polio is possible with appropriate vaccination treatments; by avoiding contact with polio viruses, by good hygiene, and by avoiding areas where polio is endemic.

• The poliovirus can be eradicated from this earth. There are 3 strains of wild poliovirus, none of which can survive for long periods outside of the human body.  If the virus cannot find an unvaccinated person to infect, it will die out.  The type 2 wild poliovirus was eradicated in 1999 and it appears that the type 3 wild poliovirus may also have been eradicated.

• In 1985, Rotary International launched a world-wide effort to eliminate polio from the world.  Later the World Health Organization (WHO), the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), UNICEF, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, national governments, and others joined the effort.   From 1985 through 2017, Rotarians have contributed $1.7 BILLION to vaccinate over 2.5 billion children in 122 countries.

• In 1988 350,000 cases of were reported.  In 2017 only a total of nine (9) cases of the type 1 wild poliovirus were reported in just three countries—Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Nigeria. This is a 99.99% reduction in the number of cases since 1988!

• We are very close to eradicating the poliovirus from our earth.  We have to push this effort forward to a successful conclusion!

Why fund Clubfoot Solutions to buy braces used in the non-surgical Ponseti method to correct clubfoot?

• About every 3 minutes a child somewhere in the world is born with clubfoot; this is about 200,000 per year.  It is the most prevalent birth defect.  It occurs independent of social or economic status and independent of geographical location.  It is twice as common among males and half the time it occurs in both feet.

• Clubfoot, untreated, will lead to a lifetime deformity that will limit the child’s ability to walk, to play, to attend school, and, eventually, to work.

• By systematic manipulations, precise cast applications and night braces from birth to age four or five, clubfoot can be completely and permanently corrected.  This method was developed by Dr. Ignacio V. Ponseti of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in the 1950s.  It has only recently been popularized and is now the international standard for the treatment of clubfoot.

• A child will typically need a set of 10 to 12 braces over four to five years to make the treatment permanent.  The braces can cost as much as $50; this is a substantial cost in low-resource countries and for low resource parents in developed countries.