Students at Chestatee High School are gearing up for their DECA marketing chapter’s first annual DECA Dash 5K run that will benefit Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

The race will begin at 8 a.m. on Sept. 19, and early registration runs through Sept. 18.

Megan Montrois, a senior at Chestatee High, is the Georgia DECA vice president of civic consciousness. She said marketing students wanted to help other children this year through their annual fundraiser.

"I just feel that people really respond to children because they all have children, they were all once children," Montrois said.

The students are raising money to help the children’s hospital purchase a pricey LIFEPAK defibrillator to help care for critically ill or injured patients.

Whitney Brechter, a junior and DECA vice president for community service at Chestatee High, said she’s grateful to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for helping her 13-year-old brother and the fundraiser holds special meaning for her.

"It kind of hit close to home with me because my brother has leg problems from his bones not growing correctly on one side and Children’s Healthcare really stepped in and they helped us a lot," she said. "He’s healing well. He had a big surgery last summer, so it’s kind of hitting home for all of us and that’s another reason we wanted to support it."

Brechter said DECA students have gained sponsorship from many local businesses and hope to bring out a good crowd for the run.

"We want to raise as much as possible and do as much as we can. ... We’re trying to just get it out there and get a lot of people in it," she said.

Holli Howard, a DECA advisor for Chestatee High, said the event is setting a positive tone for students at the beginning of the school year.

"The student body has been so wonderful with putting this together and they’re really excited to show off their hard work and put on this event for the community and the people who want to walk or run in the race," she said.