A run for the rainforest

By Frances Vanderploeg

Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2008 | midnight

Walking into John C. Vanderburg Elementary School's front office, visitors are greeted by dozens of baskets full of goodies, lining a table and trickling onto the floor below.

The baskets are one part of an overall goal of raising money for the school's rainforest biosphere — the only school-based rainforest biosphere in the world — as well as the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation.

Students and teachers in every class brought in items for the baskets, which will be auctioned off at the Oct. 11 Danny Gans Champions Run for Life.

This is the sixth year the school has partnered with the Las Vegas Strip entertainer. Previously, the run was known as the Danny Gans Run for the Rainforest and the Danny Gans Run for Children's Charities.

The $1.3 million rainforest project opened in 2002. It includes plants and animals found in rain forests, including two cockatoos and a macaw, a boa constrictor, turtles, koi and tree frogs.

Everything from the animals to the maintenance has been paid for with volunteer time and donations since then.

Upkeep of the rainforest can be expensive, so members of the school knew right away they would need an annual fundraiser.

The run became that annual event when Gans' children attended the school, Barbara Simms, biosphere executive director, said. Since the Gans family has moved on, the benefactors of the race have become more numerous, but Vanderburg's rainforest remains one of them.

It earns its funds through sponsor pledge forms the Vanderburg community can turn in, all of which goes back to the rainforest. In addition, the rain forest receives half of any money earned through the raffle baskets.

Most of the students aren't aware of how much the race does for their school's rainforest — earning, on average, close to $130,000. Their focus is more on having fun and helping out children with cancer.

"We know it's something we should do to help the kids," Tristin Sanders, 10, said.

Miriam Kimsey, 10, will be a student docent for the rainforest this year, but the race has extra meaning for her: Her 12-year-old sister, Claire, was diagnosed with leukemia in 2006. Her sister has been doing well, she said, and is expected to finish chemotherapy in March.

Miriam's mother, Annelisa Polk, a fifth grade teacher, is also involved in the race. Polk will be one member of a centipede team, calling themselves a "citypede."

"We're all going to be buildings, somehow," she said.

The event has quickly become one of Vanderburg's biggest family events, said Carolyn Battin, primary resource room teacher and coordinator of the event. The school has tried to make running and exercise more appealing to the students, in hopes that the children will decide to make it a part of their lives.

"We go out and we try to make it an almost carnival environment," she said.

Part of the plan this year is to make sure that every student receives a finishing medal, rather than just the first few finishers, she said.

Frances Vanderploeg can be reached at 990-2660 or [email protected].