Over the years township students have sold everything from wrapping paper to fruit to cookie dough to raise money for their schools. This year, Springfield Elementary and a couple of other schools are trying something different.

This week, Springfield students have been hitting up family and friends for pledge dollars in conjunction with Boosterthon Fun Run, a fundraising company out of Charlotte.

Donors will pledge the students a certain amount for every lap they complete during a fun run this Friday. The students will be running as many as 35 laps around the soccer field at Springfield with different themes each lap.

"What this does that other (fundraising programs) don't is really involve the kids throughout the day," Springfield Principal Scott Frattaroli said. "It builds character and fitness. I really like it."

Since a kickoff assembly last Thursday the Boosterthon team has been in the school talking to various classes about different character traits included in its "DREAM Big" theme, according to Matthew Haneline, who is leading the Boosterthon team at Springfield.

"We focus on fitness and character development," Haneline said. "We teach a different trait each day: D for diligence, R for responsibility, E for enthusiasm, A for appreciation and M for make a difference."

Springfield decided to go with Boosterthon last spring in response to parents' concerns about being asked to continuously raise money. Last year the school held three fundraising drives, selling wrapping paper, cookie dough and magazines, in addition to its spring carnival.

"We're hoping this fundraiser will allow us to not have to do anything else this year," Frattaroli said.

"We decided to put all our eggs in one basket and go with this company," PTA Co-President Kelly McKinney said.

The school still plans to hold it's Rodeo Days Spring Carnival as well.

With several sales based fundraisers in past years, McKinney said, the various "carrots" offered ended up motivating the parents more than the students, as they wanted to make sure their child was able to enjoy the prizes offered. Typically the parents take the sales package to work and the students end up doing little to no selling on their own.

With Boosterthon, it will be up to the kids to maximize the fundraising by running laps to rack up pledge dollars. And even the students that don't get any pledges will participate in the Fun Run and get some fitness benefit. The program also has prizes to encourage the students to raise as much money as possible, the top prizes are Razor scooters and iPod Shuffles.

The Boosterthon Fun Run program returns approximately 52 percent of the funds raised to the school, a slightly higher percentage than most sales based fundraisers, according to school officials. The 48 percent that stays with Boosterthon pays the company's staff and covers expenses of the program. However, before the funds are divvied up, teachers will get 10 percent of the funds their classes bring in within the first week of the program to use in the classroom, Haneline said.

"It's fun to be part of something that's better than what a lot of people have been doing," Haneline said. "I get to do something that has meaning to it."

Gold Hill Elementary will try the Boosterthon program in October, and Orchard Park Elementary plans to use it this spring, Frattaroli said.