Proceeds from a 5K race in Billingsley on Saturday will facilitate a project to build a walking trail at Billingsley School.

The Running Wild 5K is open to anyone who wants to walk or run 3.1 miles through Billingsley while supporting the project.

The walking trail will be a quarter-mile long, paved track lined with trees behind the school.

Students and the surrounding community will have access to it.

Tammy Tindol, a teacher in the gifted program at Billingsley, and ACCESS instructor Laura Atchison organized the 5K on Jan. 5 in hopes of raising enough funds for the trail to be completed by the end of March.

The trail will serve as a facet of the school’s outdoor classroom, and the existing trees and trees to be planted around the track will benefit students on the Billingsley FFA forestry team who will practice identifying the various trees before competitions.

“With our Certified Alabama Outdoor Classroom, we have different places throughout the campus that are part of that classroom,” Atchison said. “The whole school will be able to benefit from it, as well as the community.”

Also in the plans are a learning shelter that would allow teachers to have class outside during the fall and spring; fitness stations beside the trail; and personalized bricks installed in part of the trail.

Atchison said the shelter and fitness stations will likely be completed after the trail.

“We’re going to start our run at the front of our new gym,” Atchison said. “We’re hoping that people will actually be able to see where (the trail) will be.”

Check-in and late registration will be at 8:30 a.m., and the run will start at 9 a.m.

Registration is $20 for non-students and $10 for Billingsley students in grades K-12.

Participants 15 years and younger must be accompanied by an adult.

Entry forms and checks should be made payable to Billingsley School and may be dropped off or mailed to: Billingsley School, Attn: Running Wild 5K, 2446 County Road 77, Billingsley, AL 36006.