Supporting Sport In Our Community
Supporting Sport In Our Community
On Sunday, 14th May we thanked our fantastic London Marathon Team for their brilliant dedication and commitment in representing the charity (unfortunately Jennie Evans was unavailable)
They combined brilliantly and fundraised way beyond our expectations.
Thanks again to Linda Donnelly, Michelle Watson, Julie Ludlow, Debbie Daws, Catherine Popplewell, Kelly Jenkins-Hoare and to everyone who donated to them, we are very grateful. 🖤🧡
Sunday, 31st July saw a fantastic day at the Finish Line Frolic raising money for the Finish Line Fund.
We can’t thank Hare & Tortoise Running Limited enough, we are so grateful for your fantastic support.
We are lucky also have had the support as sponsors of Southbourne Physiotherapy LTD and Myracekit for the two years the event now has run now. Thank you!
Belchamps Scout Activity Centre have also provided a great HQ for us and we are blessed with many helpers to make things happen.
To everyone who took part or supported the event, many thanks.
This year we are close to our target of providing 30 grants. These total c£15,000 and have benefited a range of sports clubs, event organisers and public places with a high degree of sporting activity. We have now placed 27 defibrillators into the community, all in East Essex. 🧡
On Sunday, 23rd July we were at The Kirste 5 Memorial Race providing help with marshalling.
This is a community charity race in its tenth year, supporting Macmillan cancer support and the breast unit at Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in memory of Kirste Bowman.
We were pleased to provide a grant to cover the cost of the medical requirements. Trustee Lloyd Richardson is pictured with organiser Karl Cadman and the medical team from EMS Response – First Aid to Critical Care.
Saturday 25th March saw the 3rd annual running of the Finish Line Fund Virtual Relay.
278 runners from six clubs took part and raised ÂŁ1,924 for the Finish Line Fund.
The event simply requires 12 consecutive half hour slots to be filled by each club’s runners, with no limit on the maximum. Runners can run anywhere on their own route with points awarded for most mileage covered and number of runners per club.
Runners took part from Benfleet Running Club, Flyers Southend, Rayleigh Road & Trail, South Woodham Runners, Leigh-on-Sea Striders, and Pitsea Running Club.
Leigh-on-Sea Striders came out on top for the 2nd year running.
Mark Benham the charity’s secretary said.
“We are delighted that the event was such a success once more. We started this event in the 2021 lockdown and have now run two events since. To have so many runners on the streets raising money for the charity was fantastic. We’d like to thank all the runners who took part and the clubs who participated to ensure the numbers were high. Fundraising such as this is vital for us to continue our work”.
We recently completed the supply of new kit to Trinity Football Club U8 Lions. Here they are looking fantastic in their new kits and jackets. The funding also provided the team with new goals and other equipment to assist with training.
Good luck for the rest of the season!
As a small charity, we are not able to purchase charity places for the London Marathon.
We are therefore reliant on those supporters who gain ballot places, putting themselves forward to fundraise for the charity.Â
This year we are blessed to have Debbie Daws, Linda Donnelly , Kelly Hoare, Julie Ludlow and Michelle Watson fundraising for us, running the London streets, at the event on April 23rd.
Additionally Jennie Evans and Catherine Popplewell are fundraising in the Virtual London Marathon.Â
We would like to extend our thanks to all our fundraisers , wish them well with their remaining training over the next few weeks and of course on the big day.
This week we held a fundraising Curry evening, which was enjoyed by 32 attendees.
#Supportsportinourcommunity
We recently completed work with three Essex based CrossFit organisations to provide vital life saving equipment at each venue.
CrossFit is the high-intensity fitness programme incorporating elements from several sports and types of exercise.
At Crossfit 13 in Hutton, Two Tails CrossFit in Wickford and The Training Design Gym in Chelmsford, we have worked together to provide three separate defibrillator facilities.
In the case of CrossFit 13 and The Training Design these are public access facilities, which are also available to serve the wider public, on two busy industrial sites.
The owners of each organisation held fundraising days for members to contribute and the response in each case was outstanding.
We would like to thank the fantastic fundraising achievement in each case.
Pictured are trustee Malcom Keys at CrossFit 13 in Brentwood with owner Emily Hart and
If you would like to find out more about CrossFit :-
On Sunday 4th December 2022, we officially opened the public access defibrillator that has been placed on the pavilion at Southend on Sea and EMT Cricket Club in Southchurch Park.
The facility is in memory of the late John Wilding, father of our supporter Julia Wilding.
Julia fundraised and personally donated the majority of the funds required to establish this facility which will make the park a safer place for it’s users.
We would like to thank Julia, The Cricket Club, Southend Council, James Duddridge MP and SADS UK for their help in bringing this project to conclusion.
On Saturday 10th Dec 2022 we were delighted to receive a donation of ÂŁ425 from Kerry Fairless of the former Southend based Alexander House Trade Union Branch.
Kerry said ” The closure of Alexander House in Southend ends 50 years of Customer’s presence. Our branch prided itself om protecting workers and playing a positive role in the community.
Over the years we’d raised a considerable amount for our campaign fund are are delighted to donate what is left to the Finish Line Fund. We lost our own, beloved President, Mike Lightfoot to a sudden heart attack a few years back and Nick Palmer’s mother Linda, was a member of the branch for many years.
The Finish Line Fund is there to sae lives and if our donation goes some way towards doing that, it will be an excellent testimony to all of those who have worked and been members of our Branch”.
We’d like to thank Kerry and all those who will have contributed over the years for the donation.
It’s hard to believe that two months have passed since the Finish Line Frolic on 31st July. It’s taken that time for us to finalise the various financial aspects of the event.
Last weekend our chairman Keith Passingham paid a visit to another Hare & Tortoise Running charity event “Mayor & Tortoise-Mayor’s Big Run” and was pleased to be advised of the final Frolic donation, a fantastic £3,854, which includes the sponsorship funds from My Race Kit, Southbourne Physiotherapy, and Malcolm Keys Consulting.
We would like to thank Bev and Pete at Hare & Tortoise https://www.hareandtortoiserunning.co.uk once again for their fantastic support and that of our wonderful sponsors and supporters, at the event and through months of preparation.
We were delighted to attract 131 entries, 115 runners on the day, all competing over a lapped approximately 5k route which started at Belchamps Scout Centre (who made us very welcome) and passed though Gusted & Hockley Woods.
Runners completed as many laps as they wished in the 6-hour time limit, with Mike Woodward of Pitsea RC and Jemma Lee of Leigh on Sea Striders, coming out on top.
Full results are here: https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=284895
Here’s what some of the runners had to say: –
“An awesome experience”
“Friendly, Fun and Peaceful”
“Wonderfully organised, inclusive event”
“Great event, medal and goody bag”
“Great race, lovely atmosphere”
“Brilliantly organised, great route”
“There was so much to love about this event”
Finally, we are delighted to announce that the Frolic will return on Sunday 30th July 2023, once more at Belchamps Scout Centre. Please come and join us, you can sign up here
https://hare-tortoise-running.eventize.co.uk/e/finish-line-frolic-539