“The hardest thoughts were, ‘I’m not sure I can do this,’ ‘Maybe I took on too much,’ ‘Maybe there are some things that are too hard.’ I think I went through a lot of what the kids go through.”
Kate Fletcher is an English teacher at Louisa County High School in Virginia.
While her days are spent in the classroom, the impact she’s had on her students reaches far beyond the four walls she teaches in. Kate started running at the age of 35 to show her students that any goal is possible through perseverance and hard work. At the start of the 2015 school year, she was struck with the idea to raise money to fund a scholarship for her students by setting out to achieve a feat that even the most experienced athletes wouldn’t begin to dream of doing – running 100 miles in 24 hours on the school’s track.
Kate partnered with her colleague, Carrie Hicks, to bring her idea to fruition — and the Lion Pride Run was born. After seeing the community rally around their vision to provide more opportunities for students, Carrie turned to GoFundMe to broaden the audience of Kate’s selfless story. Since then, their combined hard work has resulted in providing over $10,000 a year in scholarships to several hard-working, dedicated students.
Though her 100 mile feat has caught the attention of many, including features in national magazines, Kate’s marathon isn’t over yet Kate says, “The goal now is to double the amount of scholarships that we gave out last year, and sustainably keep giving that amount of scholarships every year for the next decade.”
Watch the video above to learn more about how Kate is giving her students a chance at a brighter future.