When Anthony Esposito started as president of the Woodbridge Elementary School PTA in early July, he had an immediate challenge: an empty back account.
In his second year as a PTA member and the first as an officer, Esposito was impressed with programs the PTA offered for students and families.
"The PTA did so many things that the budget was at zero," he said. "We realized this is going to be difficult."
The problem left Esposito searching for an outside-the-box solution.
For the last two years, Esposito, an assistant principal at Fulton Elementary School in Howard County, has run with a group of Howard County teachers to raise money through donations for a local food pantry.
Esposito runs five days a week — an hour on Mondays and Wednesdays, 90 minutes on Tuesdays and Fridays and up to 41/2 hours on Saturdays.
And now he's using his hobby to help his PTA boost its coffers.
This fall, Esposito plans to run the Baltimore Marathon Oct. 15, the Oct. 22 Patapsco 50K and the JFK 50-miler on Nov. 19, for a total of 108 miles. While he has done long races before, it's not typical for him to do so many of them in such a short period, he said.
His goal is to raise $1,080 — $10 per mile. He created a campaign on GoFundMe — a crowdsource fundraising website — to organize his efforts.
Within a week, $700 was committed. As of July 27, $845 has been raised from 25 people toward the campaign. The community has also chipped in with donations of paper goods and decorations to help get the school year started, he said.
"We're pretty surprised by the response we've received already," said Esposito, whose oldest son is entering first grade at Woodbridge in Catonsville.
The money raised will help the PTA with the programming it typically offers, including Donuts for Dads and Muffins with Moms events. Esposito hopes to add more to the calendar, such as "Trunk or Treat," a Halloween-themed event in which parents decorate trunks of cars and families can do trick or treating on school property.
Fundraising will start at the start of the school year during Back to School Night, as the PTA will start selling school spirit wear, Esposito said. The PTA gets a portion of the proceeds, he said.
Esposito sees his Howard County job as an asset, as he can understand what teachers and administrators go through.
"It's what I do on a daily basis," he said.
He wants to show parents that one can be a working parent but also take a leadership role in the PTA. He wants to get more parents involved by delegating and allowing others to take on leadership roles.
He said he wanted to join the PTA for the same reason he got into education, to be a male role model for elementary school children. His father was president of the PTA when he was in elementary school, he said.
Esposito said he's been told by Baltimore County PTA Council president Emory Young that a school the size of Woodbridge — about 450 students — ought to have between $10,000 and $20,000 to run programs.
Young said it's uncommon for a school PTA to enter the school year with no money. But he said the fundraising campaign was a new and unique approach to build up the bank account.
"It's a way to utilize your network and the community to get them behind something," he said.
"We're confident we can raise the funds from the supportive community," Esposito said. "It may take us time to get there."