Junior Sachi Cooper is the president of the Charity Miles Club.

Q: What is the club about and what activities do you do?

“We are a running team, a lot of charities have their own running teams that help fundraise for the charity. We are all going to choose a 5K and we’ve chosen to fundraise the Organization for Autism Research, and we’ll be fundraising for them throughout the year and then we’ll be running our race towards the end of the year.”

Q: How many organizations have you helped in the past?

“We’ve been focusing on local charities and last year we donated over $400 towards the Organization for Autism Research. The Organization for Autism Research has been the one we’ve been most connected with recently.”

Q: How do you gain money from running?

“Each member will go around and ask their neighbors, family, and friends to pitch in a little bit of money for charity to help them achieve the goal of running the race in the end. The point of running the race is that your encouraged to keep going because people are putting in money to your success. The other way that it works is that you can get a pledger, so you can have someone pay ¢5 for every mile you run.”

Q: What are the requirements to join?

“It’s not a sports team by any means, the point is to encourage people to challenge themselves, for instance if you’re a really good runner, maybe a sprinter on track, but you have never run a 5K before, the 5K will still be a challenge for you because it’s something you’ve never done. If someone is completely new to running it doesn’t matter, if you’re running a race no one is going to kick you off if your taking two hours. Everyone is encouraged to join and it’s supposed to be a motivator to get people into running.”

Q: What is the goal of the club?

“Our goal is to integrate the W-L community with the whole Arlington community and to give back through doing something that empowers members and is good for their health. Personally I participated in a sprint triathlon in August and it was a challenge for me and that was something that made me feel stronger not just athletically, but in general. It’s great because we get to give back to the community though that process.”

Charity Miles Club meets every Thursday in room 3205 after school.