Kerby Teacher to Run Half-Marathon as Benefit

Pat Brown made his first appearance before the Kerby Elementary student body Friday sporting a hula girl outfit complete with a coconut bikini top, a grass skirt and many brightly colored flowers.

Beneath the hula girl costume, Brown wore running gear--a tech shirt, running shorts and running shoes.

Brown is running a half-marathon early Saturday in Mt. Clemens as part of a schoolwide fundraiser that will benefit the family of late Parcells Middle School teacher Brian Aulph.

Aulph, 36, passed away unexpectedly in mid-February due to complications following heart surgery, according to a letter Parcells Principal Cathryn Armstrong sent to parents. Aulph taught Spanish at the middle school for 12 years.

According to his obituary, he is survived by his wife and two young children, his parents and two siblings. In addition to teaching, Aulph was a football coach and fisherman. Rather than flowers at the time of his services, the family asked for any memorials to be made in the form of donations to the children's education fund. 

More than $1,000 will be put into the education fund from students at Kerby Elementary School related to the half-marathon fundraiser involving Kerby fifth grade teacher Brown.

They raised the money by coming up with a list of outfits they wanted Brown to wear during the half-marathon and then students had to pay at least $1 to lodge a vote.

Brown volunteered to use himself as the target of the fundraiser and he approached the Kerby student council advisor, Jenna Walsh, about two months ago, she said.

The student council generated costume ideas and narrowed the list to:

• a beautiful ballerina
• a Spartan (Brown's a big University of Michigan supporter)
• a pretty princess
• a kitty cat
• a hula girl

Each costume idea received votes but the hula girl received the most votes with 632. The princess costume came in second with 351. 

Brown is a runner. This will be his seventh half-marathon and he's run two full marathons. His next full marathon is scheduled for November in Indianapolis, he said.

During his 13.1 mile run Saturday, Brown will also wearing a sign explaining his hula girl outfit, which was the result of Kerby Elementary students raising more than $1,000 to help a family in need, Walsh said.

He revealed the winning outfit Friday during an all-school assembly, during which students watched a video Brown made with the help of other teachers. He then made his grand entrance through a back door, running to the front of the gymnasium wearing the hula girl outfit atop his running gear. 

The idea came to him during one of his runs, he said, when there is a lot of "quiet time." He had been thinking of the Aulph family a lot, which he described Friday as not being that different from his own family. 

Kerby Elementary is a giving community, Brown said, explaining how students are always working on a benefit project

As the father of two young children of his own, he wanted to reach out to the Aulph family, he said.

The best part about the fundraiser, Brown said, was that the students got into it. The money raised was not simply money brought in by parents, Brown said, but students donated their own money and then asked mom and dad to supplement somtimes.

One student, Brown said, used his money from the tooth fairy. "That meant a lot," Brown said Friday, noting his class raised more than $300. 

Ultimately, the project is aimed at helping the Aulph children. It is one of the many fundraisers that have gone on in the district to help the Aulph family. 

Patch will be updating this story with photos and Brown's finishing time for the half-marathon.