For photos, see the article in the Sammamish Reporter or the November issue of the Coyote Howler.

Over $52,000 was raised by Cascade Ridge Families, Friends and Community! The proceeds from this event help to ensure CR will continue to offer programs and curriculum that help make it one of the top elementary schools in the state. Thank you for your generosity!

Friday, October 15th marked the end of Spirit Week and time for the Wild West Stampede. Coyote spirit had been building as classrooms put the finishing touches on their Raffle Baskets and the kids donned their finest western gear. Each day the anticipation grew and finally on Friday, with the sun in full view over the Cascades, Mrs. Fowler gave the final Yahoo! to start WALKING!

The kids took off in their Wild West Stampede T-Shirts and began circling the building, high-fiving the Seahawks Blitz and stopping in to get their picture taken at the Jail photo booth. Several teachers were “arrested” and taken to “jail” by our own Cascade Ridge Sheriffs and the kids enjoyed doing silly tasks to make bail. Speaking of silly, western themed Silly Bands were given out for each lap and the kids couldn’t help but get sucked in to the carnival games both inside and outside the school. The festivities continued with Line Dancing and snacking on the homemade goodies and caramel apples!

New this year and a big highlight was the Raffle Basket drawing. The incredible baskets put together by each CR classroom raised nearly $7,000! The line around the baskets was non-stop as parents and kids pondered on which basket to place their tickets in. And no Western Stampede is complete without feedin’ the hungry cowpokes, the Chuck Wagon was bustling, servin’ up BBQ Pork, Salads and Hog Dogs.

As the sun set on the Coyote Corral and the Stampede wound down to a close, we couldn’t help but smile at how lucky we are to have such a fantastic community!

To Mrs. Fowler, Principal: Thank you for your tremendous support and enthusiasm throughout the entire process. You were there with us until we closed the Coyote Corral on Friday night. Thank you for being so hands on and showing us how much you care about our kids and Cascade Ridge.

To our Teachers and Staff: Thank you for your enthusiasm and involvement. Helping with communications, sporting your western duds and joining us for the Walkathon festivities. The students really enjoyed their time with all of you! A Special thanks to the Outlaws and to Zana Moore, for allowing us to display the gift baskets in the Library.

To our Walk-A-Thon Planning Committee:
Betsy Matias – Decorations
Ann Brooks / Peggy Rodman – Entertainment
Laure Runyan / Megan Tedesco–Concessions
Nichole Wengert – Raffle
Erica Dunn – Spirit Week
Neeru Mahaesh – Course and Volunteer Coordination
Susan Sansing – Pledge Management
Krystl McCandlish – “Stars” Coordination
Rageev Goel – Webmaster

Your dedication and time spent during the planning, preparation and execution of this event paid off! The success of the Walk-a-Thon can be directly attributed to your hard work and the special talents each one of you brought to the committee. We truly appreciate your amazing commitment. Thank You!

To the Walk-A-Thon & Fall Festival Volunteers:

This was truly a community event and not possible to execute without the generous gift of your time and effort. We had over 150 volunteers! Amazing! Many of you donated gifts for the raffles and items to be used during the event and still more bought or made items to be given away or sold. The day of the event many of you worked on Set Up, Clean Up, First Aid, Cheer/Goodie Stations, Lap Stampers, Kitchen, Concessions, Photographers, Carnival Game Workers, Student Volunteers, Class Room Reps and Special Requests. Wow! I think we can all be really proud to be a part of a school that has this kind of family involvement! Thank you!

To our Community Supporters:

Hawkins Orthodontics
Swedish Hospital
KPMG ~ Mathnasium

Anna Lisin, Lake Sammamish Dentistry ~ Cartoys ~ Cathy Santiago, Windermere ~ Gotta Dance ~ Klahanie Veterinarian Hospital ~ Krispy Kreme ~ Learning RX ~ Olympic Coast Investment ~ Pacific Bicycle ~ Papa John’s ~ QFC Klahanie ~ Staples ~ Windows Azure ~ World Dance Barn ~ 24 Hour Fitness ~ Evergreen Ford ~ Home Depot Issaquah ~ Hwang’s Tae Kwon Do School ~ Issaquah Sewing & Vacuum ~ Karate West ~ Lakeside Family Physicians ~ Lowe’s Issaquah ~ Red Robin Issaquah ~ Salish Lodge ~ Starbucks Klahanie ~ Trader Joe’s Issaquah ~ Walgreens Issaquah ~ Washington Awards. Additional contributions provided by: Albertson’s, Bel Viso, Brendan Bosworth, Coho Café, Flat Iron Grill, Fred Meyer, Gina Mazzaferro, Gold Class Theaters, McDonald’s and Tutta Bella.

Thank you for supporting Cascade Ridge!

Kudos to Mrs. Fentress’, Mrs. Gilstrap’s and Mr. Marckx’s Classes for 100% Participation in the Walkathon!

Your feedback is welcome and encouraged, send comments to: jaycee.cooper@gmail.com