Northern Ireland Mountain Running Association
www.nimra.org.uk

 

Asian Quake Charity Run Round up

Thu 13 January 2005 - Ian Taylor

From Jim Brown:
Else where on this website you can read a report of the run and view photographs. I would like to report that ?5016.89 was raised on the day, of which ?3346.78 was entry donations and ?1670.11 was sponsorship. We expect more money to come in as pledges of sponsorship are honoured. Additionally tax relief through gift aid on those entry fees and sponsorship paid by taxpayers should boost this sum even further, and we will publish a total in a few weeks time when we have these figures to hand. All facilities and materials required for the event were provided free of charge, as was peoples? time, so every penny raised will be passed on to Oxfam.

Although we never intended to mention people by name I think a special mention has to be made of Margaret Muldoon and her family who raised over ?500, and Terry McQueen with almost ?500. There were plenty of other large donations, but large or small, many many thanks for every penny donated.

The idea for this run came about as a result of watching the horrific news reports on Television, specifically a BBC news special called the ?Big Wave?. I thought, ?What can I do? I can give a donation, but what else can I do?? It dawned on me that one thing I could do was organize a race, and where better than on a beach with all the symbolism that evokes. In athletics and outdoor activities there are many talented people so it proved relatively easy to round up a team and spread the workload. As the tides dictated when the run could be held, it turned out that we had to move fast to get everything in place for the 9th January.

So a big thanks to all the people who helped out. I shall not even try to list them all for fear of missing somebody out, but you know who you are and we could not have pulled this off without your efforts. A few people were lynch pins and I feel no qualms about mentioning them.

Ian Taylor ------------- For web assistance and paper work.
Richard Rodgers ----- For his media skills, course planning, and race organization.
Frank Morgan--------- Start and Finish.
Marty McVeigh------ Start and Finish and getting soaked.
Mark Pruzina --------- More media skills and getting stuck in.
Nigel Hart ------------- Safety and First aid.
Sharon Stuart --------- Organizing members of the SRS walking club for registration.
Tom Donnelly -------- Tax Advice.
Paddy Mallon --------- Marshalling skills and sound advice.
Ian Stuart -------------- Computing the results.
Andrew Campbell ---- Providing marshals vests free of charge.
Dave McKibben-------Public address system.

Richard in his report thanked the other agencies and businesses who provided facilities free of charge and I echo his sentiments, especially in relation to Down District council for the use of the Newcastle Centre. Finally a final big thank you to every body that supported the event and made it so successful despite the foul weather. Hopefully we shall never have to do this again!!

Jim Brown 10th February 2005.
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I cannot post the above report for Jim without adding all our thanks to him. Without Jim there would have been no run. He thought of the idea, convinced others of its merits and then pulled a team together to carry it through, all in the space of about 10 days. Every day he had new ideas to take the event forward and ensured we were all doing what we had promised.

Thanks

Ian