This Friday every student at Tauranga Intermediate will be running, jumping, sack racing, and doing all sorts of fun games.

It's all part of their Ultimate Relay, the school's biggest fundraiser.

Tauranga Intermediate communications manager Karen Mills says the event is the successor to the 24-hour relay which used to run at Memorial Park.

'That relay involved businesses and schools running for 24 hours but it ended up finishing, so our school started up a 12-hour relay instead. That ran from 7am to 7pm, but it got a bit big in recent years. It also only had a few of our students participating.

'So now we have the Ultimate Relay, which aims to get every student involved.”

The day will be made up of several different games and activities, including a vertical bungee and sack races. The main event, of course, will be the relay, which sees teams running for about two hours, trying to do as many laps as they can.

In terms of fundraising, it's the biggest event on the school calendar.

'We can make between $40,000 to $50,000 from this relay so it's a huge fundraising opportunity.”

In order to raise money, each student has a sponsorship form they take out into the community.

'They just ask for donations – we don't do it on a per lap basis anymore,” says Karen.

'Business sponsors can do a $400 sponsorship, or there are $200 individual sponsorships, which are recognised with the sponsor's name being put up in our camp.”

The camp is Ngamuwahine, which is own by the school. Most of the fundraising will be for the facility, purchasing paintball guns, laser tag, mountain bikes and kayaks, although a donation is always made to a community organisation. This year it's Waipuna Hospice.

'It changes every year, though,” says Karen. 'One year we had a blind student, so we gave a donation to the Blind Foundation. Another year I donated my kidney to a fellow teacher, so we gave a donation to Kidney Kids. We always try to give back to a community organisation our kids have been involved with.”