Two hundred ninety-eight thousand dollars.
That’s how much a high school dropout costs the community they live in over the course of a lifetime, according to Performance Learning Center principal Dr. Lamar Brown.
To help reduce the local dropout rate, First Volunteer Bank is hosting the “Every Day Leads to Graduation Day” 5k Saturday, March 15. All event proceeds will go to Catoosa County’s Communities in Schools program. CIS gives 90 percent of its funding to the PLC, located in Fort Oglethorpe, which helps struggling students get back on track to graduation day.
“We can make a difference, but we need the community behind us,” said CIS Executive Director Jayme Elliott.
The traditional 5k run and fun walk raised $10,000 in 2013 and has brought in 265 runners in years past. The goal this year is to enroll 500 runners. Those who sign up will receive a free T-shirt.
A 37-inch flat-screen TV will be raffled off to help raise money as well.
“The race starts in Ringgold at First Volunteer Bank [at 5102 Alabama Highway] in the Ingles parking lot,” Elliott said. “The race goes down by the creek and by Ringgold High School and back to Ingles.”
The PLC has served about 800 students in its 10 years of existence, said Brown.
“Sixty of the recent 78 PLC graduates would not have graduated without the PLC,” he said, adding that an estimated 66 more will achieve a diploma this spring. “CIS provides support and a services coordinator to call students absent from school. Jayme works with students on basic needs such as winter coats. We had a student that we thought had the flu, so Jayme called to make the student a doctor’s appointment.”
CIS works with area health care facilities on sliding scale arrangements to make it affordable to students, said Elliott. The organization also hosts seminars on prenatal and dental care, operates an allergy clinic and takes students on field trips to Atlanta, Chattanooga and Knoxville.
“We have to raise our own funds and write our own grants,” Elliott noted.
To enroll in the Graduation Day 5k, visit active.com. Day-of registration is at 6:30 a.m. The race begins at 8 and the 1-mile Fun Walk at 8:05. Chattanooga Track Club runners can earn points for entering the race.
To learn more, call Mary Carpenter at 423-668-4708.
To learn more about the PLC, visit the Performance Learning Center website or call 706-861-2772.
To learn more about CIS, visit the organization’s website.