ARLINGTON — Running up 69 flights of stairs was not something Marin Rocha was too keen on.

But when the Haller Middle School seventh-grader learned that she could use her crafting abilities to help raise money for cancer research, she was all in.

“It’s going to a good cause,” Rocha said Friday, Jan. 22, as she braided a hemp bracelet. “I like to be crafty and people can buy these and support the climb.”

That climb, more specifically, is the Big Climb Seattle — an annual event in which participants raise money for cancer by racing to the top of the Columbia Center.

Since December, about 45 students at Haller have been taking part in the “Big Climb Challenge” club.

Students involved in the club, which meets every Friday from 1:45-2:30 p.m., have been raising money for the Big Climb by selling candy, popcorn, cocoa mix and other items to raise money for Leukemia and Lymphoma research.

The club’s goal is $2,500, said teacher and club co-organizer Chere Vidmore.

Vidmore said she trained for the Big Climb a couple of years ago and thought it would be fun to get Haller students involved.

She teamed up with teachers Rachel Harrington and Suzanne Deaver to form the club.

Although the club is primarily meant to raise funds, some students are actively training for the event.

Vidmore said she originally wanted to form the club so that all of its students could take part in the Big Climb. But liability issues kept club organizers from allowing club members from making a field trip down to Seattle.

Approximately 10 students have said they are planning on participating in the March 21 climb on their own. Vidmore said staff members from Haller and community members are also planning on taking part.

“The kids are really buying into the fact that they are helping others,” Harrington said.

Students are not just limited to working on their wind sprints — the club members can help chart sprinters’ progress as they train for the event, work on promotional material, create and decide on items to sell or a little bit of everything, Harrington said.

“We wanted a club that was multi-faceted,” she said. “There’s something for techies, athletes and everybody else.”

During a recent meeting, students first broke off into a number of separate groups of about 10 to either train for the race, create hemp bracelets or design promotional graphics for candy grams.

“If you’ve ever wanted to run through the halls, now you can,” Harrington told a group of runners before they sprinted up and down the stairwells at Haller.

Vidmore said the sheer number of activities being done by the club each week can seem crazy.

“This is pretty typical for this group,” she said. “It’s pretty loud and crazy compared to other clubs.”

HAWK Friday, which stands for Haller Awesome Weekly Klubs, is an enrichment program that happens each Friday at the middle school.

Teachers offer a number of clubs to students who have completed all of their weekly assignments and have not had any disciplinary problems.

Club organizers for the climb said they are currently soliciting donations from the Arlington community. Vidmore said the club is hoping to start a Web site soon so that residents and students can keep track of their donations online.

For more information on the club, e-mail vidmore at chere_vidmore@asd.wednet.edu or call Haller Middle School at 360-618-6400.

Information on the Big Climb can be found at www.bigclimb.org.