Walk Around Mars gearing up for Martian Week
We know now that in the early years of the 21st century, Martians were spotted Butler County.
No, this isn't “War of the Worlds.” This is Walk Around Mars, the community fundraiser launched in February by the Mars Planet Foundation.
The joint fundraising and walking campaign raises money for teacher grants and student scholarships in Mars Area School District.
“We really, really want people to get out,” said Christine Valenta, a member of Mars School Board and the sponsor coordinator for the foundation.
Walk Around Mars includes three different “theme weeks” designed to get people outside.
The week of April 19 is “Where's the Martian?” week. The foundation is encouraging people to document Martian sightings.
That is, Marty the Martian sightings.
Short green look-alikes will be stationed at 37 area businesses that have so far contributed to the roughly $35,327 Walk Around Mars has raised.
“The idea is for participants to go out ... and find little Marty Martians,” Valenta said.
People are asked to take pictures of the Martians they find and upload them to the foundation's social media.Prizes will be given to the people who find the most Martians.Caitlyn Boland, director of Mars Area Public Library, has hosted a Martian at the library for a few weeks.She said the extraterrestrial visitor as been a wonderful conversation starter.“We've had so many people just walk in,” Boland said. “Everybody wants one.”While fundraising has been robust, Valenta said there's still a ways to go in the walking campaign.True to its name, Walk Around Mars is about getting members of the community to walk 13,263 miles — the circumference of the Red Planet — together.Participants log their miles online using a collective platform. As of Friday, 3,861 miles were walked by people involved in the event.“We definitely want to be able to surpass (that),” Valenta said. “We really, really want to say we walked the circumference of Mars.”Walk Around Mars continues through May 10. Valenta's hoping to see the 13,263-mile goal reached in the next three weeks.“This has been a phenomenal event,” Valenta said. “We don't want to fall too far behind.”Boland said the campaign seems to be successful, even for its first year.Seeing how the foundation supports the school district, she hopes Walk Around Mars becomes an annual event.“The foundation itself supports a lot of really great causes,” Boland said.Information about the event and its contests is available on the foundation website https://marsplanetfoundation.org/.
