THE Elsa MacLeod Kindergarten staff got their steps up last month while raising money for Camp Quality, in support of one of their young students diagnosed with cancer.

Four-year-old Annie Pender has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia and attends Elsa MacLeod Kindergarten only every Monday.

Her illness and treatment inspired the kindergarten’s director Jodi Parker and educational leader Marjoné Zeeman to join the Camp Quality fundraiser, Big Walk For Little Kids.

“We wanted to support her and other children within the community with being able to access experiences through Camp Quality,” Ms Parker said.

“It's a nice way to introduce the subject to the children, because they are only of a young age, and it's visual, they can see our kilometres that we've walked and such.

“The more that we can talk about it, and make it a normality that it is Annie’s life, and it doesn't happen to everyone, the better.

“Sometimes Annie is away for long periods of time and the kids are starting to realise that maybe she's just not feeling the best or she's a bit tired.”

Six staff members participated in walking over the month of September, along with an extra pair of four legs to help them build up to their target of 161 kilometres.

Ms Parker had decided to register her six-month-old Great Dane Ginny for the walk, as Annie is very fond of her.

Ms Zeeman said the kindergarten wanted to go the extra mile, and with the target originally 100 kilometres easily reached, it was changed to 100 miles which converted into 161 kilometres.

The staff made some early morning walks along the foreshore and even around Melbourne, each team member was able to link their fitness app to Camp Quality.

Kindergarten families made plenty of donations toward Camp Quality and soon the kindergarten had exceeded their money goal and raised $567.

Following this achievement, one young student, Piper Sutton, has made the choice to chop her long hair and donate it to make a wig for children with cancer, Ms Parker said.

To show their support, Elsa Macleod will be having a funky hair day soon.

“We've got a puppet show coming on November 16th and they're from Camp Quality,” Ms Parker said.

“It’s on one of our four-year-old days, but we’re inviting all of our three-year-olds to come and watch it as well and it's a half an hour production in the morning.

“This has been really important, and we've seen the value of what we can contribute, so I think this will be a yearly thing that we will do.”