Proceeds from a fundraiser Thursday night will benefit a new after-school fitness program at Central Junior High School.

The event will run from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Pizza Hut, 932 Mass. Families and supporters of the school can fill out a form when they pay for their food asking to donate 20 percent of the total be donated to CJHS.

Pizza Hut manager Eric Friesen said it was a good way for his store to help out the community.

“We get to see a little bit more increased business and we get to help out an organization to produce some money for their fundraiser,” Friesen said.

Nora Murphy, co-leader of the CJHS parents’ organization, said the fundraiser wouldn’t place a direct burden on families to buy something they wouldn’t ordinarily purchase.

“At Central Junior High we have a philosophy that we don’t sell stuff to each other,” Murphy said. “You know how kids sell cookie dough and they sell wrapping paper and all this stuff. We don’t do any of that. It’s just a burden to each other.”

She said money from the fundraiser will be used to support a new afterschool program that emphasizes physical fitness as a way to improve attention and focus in the classroom, as well as create greater confidence and self-esteem among students.

The program would need about $10,000 to provide professional afterschool fitness training twice a week to about 80 students, said Michel Loomis, the CJHS English teacher who came up with the idea. She said training would be provided through Next Level Rising fitness center.

“This isn’t a class,” Loomis said. “It’s not PE where you’re learning how to play tennis or badminton, or pickle ball. It’s doing things to get your body trained, conditioned and to get strength.”