VISTA — Parents, teachers and sponsors cheered them on as 250 Vista High School students made several circuits around and through their campus. It was a first for the high school — a 5K run for academic funding.

The March 29 run was largely the brainchild of Vista High School teachers Jeffrey and Anne Green and Wendy Brown, Dare to Plan event company owner.

“We have a fantastic booster club for football and band, but we really don't have one for the honors (program),” said Jeffrey Green, honors co-coordinator and history teacher.

“We came up with the 5K (run) because teenagers are often overweight,” Brown said, adding that they decided to use exercise to make money.

Much of the money raised will go toward subsidizing Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate tests, educational assessment exams that can give high school students college credit before they graduate. Advanced Placement exams cost $84

per test and International Baccalaureate tests cost $65 for registration and $48 per test.

“The exams are terribly expensive and we have kids who frankly can't afford it,” Jeff Green said. “It’s our goal, dream, passion that no kid from Vista High will fail to take an exam because he can’t afford it.”

The balance of the raised money has been earmarked for community service programs abroad. The programs will offer students a wide range of destinations and missions, from studying at Oxford University to building schools in Africa.

Run participants went at their own paces energized by the loud music. Some zoomed down the course as if at a track meet, others moving at a brisk walk.

“Curse these stumpy legs,” one young student joked as she ambled around the school.

Sophomore Angela Yoo was one of the race’s front-runners, perhaps because she had the most motivation.

“I wanted to help the honors program. ... It benefits me because I want to do some I.B. (International Baccalaureate) classes this year,” she said.

In the end, the event raised between $7,000 and $9,000 for the school. Brown said that was a phenomenal amount for a first-time event without a single major sponsor.

“Consider we started this event with not even a dollar. Everything ... came from people offering funding or silent auction prizes or parents giving their time and money,” Brown said.

“We must have had $1,000 of silent auctions,” she said about donations given the day of the event alone.

Brown and the Greens already have a number of new event ideas awaiting execution. The event was the first of many ways to raise money for the school, Brown said.