Night at the Museum 5K and Kid Fun Run

Please join Cottonwood Elementary School on May 20, 2016 at their third annual Night at the Museum 5K and Kid Fun Run. This year's event will take place at Lake Miola which is located just north of our school. Proceeds from the 5K and kids fun run will go toward funding Night at the Museum for years to come!

Night at the Museum (NATM) stemmed from a grant that allowed eight teachers and one principal to travel to Chicago in June, 2011. Due to the current economic hardships so many of today’s families face, even a family trip to Chicago is out of reach for many of our students, so we brought part of Chicago to them! For this event, we transformed our school building into an interactive museum. Night at the Museum partnered with over twenty local businesses to provide all of the displays and interactive exhibits for parents and children to go through. NATM allows families who are not able to afford to travel outside of our community the opportunity to experience all that big city museums have to offer while providing parents and children time together to interact as a family. It also takes learning to a whole new level for our students and allows teachers to explore a variety of ways to meet our student’s needs for social, cognitive, emotional, and physical development. During the first year of this event, we hosted more than 1,300 community members and brought in more than 1,500 non-perishable food items for our local food bank. At the end of the evening, we knew NATM was an amazing success! Unfortunately, the following year we did not receive our travel grant, but a private business donor was so impressed with the event that he funded our trip to Denver and helped to sponsor 2013 Science Night at the Museum, “Bringing a Little Colorado to Kansas.” This event once again allowed memories to be made, while at the same time building trust and relationships with our school district and community. In May of 2013 we traveled to Boston, MA and celebrated Boston Strong on May 21, 2014 with our NATM evening and Boston Strong 5K.  In May, 2015 we celebrated NATM Portland. This past summer, a group of teachers headed out to Phoenix, Arizona.  Inspired by the hikers and runners found in the great Arizona parks this year's event will feature hiking and running interspersed with obstacle course events throughout the course.