Dodson Elementary School students and faculty spent the last full day before the Thanksgiving holiday outdoors at City Park, performing skits, singing songs, dancing and, most importantly, supporting the American Diabetes Association.

In its sixth year, the annual event is a day of celebration for everyone, especially for those who helped raise money for the American Diabetes Association.

“This year alone the students have raised over $4,000,” said Lori Koonce, manager with the American Diabetes Association in Baton Rouge. “The money has come from activities like Jean Days and kids asking for donations.”

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One of the uses for the donations is to support Camp Victory, a summer camp for children with diabetes held every year in Leesville. About 220 children attend the camp each year, Koonce said.

City Park was swarming with Dodson students Friday, many wearing multicolored headbands covered with paper feathers and hand-decorated shirts. Some faculty members also came dressed in semblances of Native American costume, complete with beaded deerskin and other regalia.

Pre-kindergarten through sixth grades created individual camps with sleeping bags and pillows, but ran from place to place to participate in different activities, such as the park walk. The cool weather kept it comfortable as each grade took to the park’s walking trail in half-hour shifts, publicizing their support for the diabetes organization through exercise and spectacle.

Coach Ed Dore, who has been a coordinator of the program since it began, was on hand Friday coordinating the walk.

“Every 30 minutes they walk, pre-kindergarten through sixth grade,” Dore said, adding students and staff at Dodson have a particular interest in juvenile diabetes because of firsthand experience.

“We had students in the past who had diabetes, and we wanted to raise awareness of how to prevent Type II diabetes,” he said.

Principal Jay Leger continued his tradition of arriving by canoe in full chieftain headdress, disembarking to see and hear songs and dances from his “tribe” of children before retiring to a nearby tee-pee to tell stories to the pre- kindergarten and kindergarten classes.

Seven-year-old William Bujard was this year’s top fundraiser, bringing in $320 for the association. He said he went to all his neighbors’ houses and even contributed $20 himself.

Bujard, who said he looks forward to the diabetes walk each year, will receive a medal for his efforts from the American Diabetes Association. He already has plans for it.

“I’m going to hang it on the wall in my room,” Bujard said.