(WSB photo from 2018 Laps With Lou)

It’s been a June tradition for almost two decades – now-retired Pathfinder K-8 PE teacher Lou Cutler raising money for Make-A-Wish by running/walking around the school’s field, one lap for every year of the age he’ll be on his late-June birthday. Last year, with campuses closed for the pandemic, Lou instead walked “one big lap” around West Seattle with a few supporters. This year, students are back at Pathfinder, so Lou will be back, but in a modified manner – laps on two days, June 8th and June 10th. Lou says this is the plan:

To avoid having multiple classes on the field at one time, the solution was to have me walk two laps with one classroom at a time and rotate in new classrooms every 15 minutes. Since each classroom is divided into morning and afternoon sessions, there would be 35 different groups coming to walk two laps each with me, which amazingly would be 70 laps, my upcoming age.

The days of the walk will be June 8th and June 10th and we will start at 8 AM.

I will end up doing the equivalent of a half marathon over these two days, as I will walk extra laps with teachers to reach 13.1 miles … I will complete the marathon walk on my official 70th birthday on Friday, June 25th. I will start at Pathfinder and depart at 10 AM and be joined by MAW volunteers and staff and any friends who want to come along for a great walk and cause.

This will be the 18th year of the MAW event, and thus far, we have raised $81,228 and naturally would love to raise the total significantly this year.

Lou’s also made a priceless contribution to Make-A-Wish with a quarter-century of volunteer work. You can donate/pledge right now by going here.