The Rotary Club of Peachtree City has helped local elementary schools establish 5K races as a fundraiser over the past ten years. By organizing the races as a "Grand Prix" series with prizes for the most points earned throughout the season, each race benefits with higher attendance. At this point, the series includes all 16 of Fayette County's elementary schools. These 16 races provide over $100,000 a year in revenue raised cumulatively by those schools by using the $6,500 provided by the Rotary club as "seed money" and then getting sponsors and runners in the community to participate. These 16 races, spread over the entire school year, involve over 3,000 runners. Runners earn points for each of the races that they do and accumulate those points all year.
Each year in May the Rotary Club hosts an awards luncheon recognizing age group winners in all age categories from "8 and under" to "75 and over". All medals given out as awards have the Rotary Wheel on one side and the Four Way test on the backside, gaining a tremendous amount of exposure throughout the entire county. The program is unique in that it raises a tremendous amount of money for the schools every year, helps in the constant battle against childhood obesity and creates a significant amount of publicity and exposure for Rotary in our community. Cumulatively, we estimate that over $1 million has been raised since the races began a little over 10 years ago.