![]() The incredible support of the local community this year has ensured that the Chichester Half Marathon 2013 is more than just a sporting triumph. Chichester’s Half Marathon returned this October for another sensational year with many of the runner’s athletic triumphs detailed in today’s Chichester Observer. The community came together to create what has been described by Chichester’s Sue Mawson as an “amazing race”. This was Sue’s first half marathon and she went on to describe how “everything went so smoothly from start to finish. Quite literally!”, whilst more seasoned runner Jim Simmons from Bognor Tone Zone Runners said it was ‘A great race, well organised, well marshalled (thanks for the cheers guys) with a top medal and goodie bag. My Montezuma’s Chocolate bar was gorged within moments!” These are just a few of the encouraging comments that have been pouring in from local runners, and one of the main questions they’ve had is how much was raised for Children on the Edge? In addition to part of the entrance fee going to our projects, there have been generous donations by runners as they signed up and thousands of pounds raised through competitors getting sponsored for the race. The result is a grand total of £30,922. Speaking about this grand total Ben Wilkes from Children on the Edge (who raised over £1,000 by running the entire route barefoot) said “We couldn’t be more delighted with the amount raised. We work with some of the most forgotten children, in some of the most desperate situations, but then we have the most generous runners and sponsors in this event. These people are not only courageous enough to tough out a challenging multi terrain route, they are big hearted enough to make a huge difference for children living on the edge of their societies, across the globe.” As well as the runners, the main sponsors (Montezuma’s and Store Property) and Children on the Edge, the event was made possible by the a huge amount of man hours from Chichester District Council and an incredible group of local volunteers gathering together behind the scenes. Planning for the event started 11 months ago and work for 2014 will be starting shortly. The day began at 5.00 am with the installation of town centre signage (the use of head torches was an essential!), after 28 hours of sign installation being completed around the wider part of the course the day before. By 7.00 am cyclists were inspecting the route ensuring that it was safe to run. Volunteers wise, the event touched on 100 local people. The marshalls were highly praised by runners for keeping them going with smiling encouragement whilst standing in the rain and drizzle. The last water bottle was picked up from the route by around 2.00 pm as post event clear up was a big priority. Helen Pattinson of Montezuma’s Chocolates was the third lady to finish in the race and said of the day: "Last year had gone so well both in terms of enjoyment for the runners and for the money raised for Children on the Edge, it was hard to imagine how this year could be better. Despite the drizzle, the atmosphere at the start was one of sheer excitement from runners and organisers alike and as a sponsor, we were just so proud to see our name dotted around the Runners Village, associating us with such an amazing event. As a runner, the sprinkling of rain was very welcome and although the Trundle will never get any easier, the challenge of climbing it to reach the views from the top is well worth it. But after that, even I tucked into the bar of chocolate in my finishers' goody bag!". And well deserved that chocolate was after Montezuma’s donated a delicious 100 kilogrammes of chocolate for the goody bags! Chichester College are keen supporters of the Chi half and have hosted the race village both years running. Principle Shelagh Legrave says: ‘Chichester College is delighted to support the Chichester Half Marathon for two key reasons, firstly it is supporting a community event whilst encouraging a healthy lifestyle through sport, for which it has a significant provision. Secondly, the College tries hard to raise funds for Charity and is delighted to support Children on the Edge, a local charity with an international reach. I have run it for the past two years and it is very well organised and a fabulous route, albeit a horrible hill!’ We would like to say a huge thank you to all the runners, sponsors and volunteers mentioned above and also to any motorists or households who may have been inconvenienced by road closures. We would also like to thank the wider community who turned out to cheer on the runners. If you’ve ever run in a long distance race, you’ll know what a difference that makes! For more information, results and photographs go to our Chi half website.
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![]() As part of Montezuma's upcoming Charity Challenge week for Children on the Edge, children between the ages of 4 and 12 are being invited to 'Design a pumpkin' with the chance of winning their very own chocolate pumpkin with their design on it! The two winning entries will be presented with their pumpkins at Montezuma's Chichester store after designs are judged by a Montezuma’s panel. All completed A4 entries should be handed in to any Montezuma's store or the child's school office marked: 'Children on the Edge Pumpkin'. Designs must be handed in by Sunday 22nd September 2013. Please include a name and telephone number with each entry. Download your entry form here! Forms with the pumpkin outline may be copied for additional entries.You can be as creative and colourful as you like, but Montezuma’s do not use colourings and therefore the designs will be interpreted in chocolate as accurately as possible! ![]() We get a lot of incredible people doing incredible things for us here at Children on the Edge, but even we were knocked off our spinny office chairs when we got an e-mail from Mr Seb Zealand saying he had just set out on a sponsored bike ride for our work, from his home town in Yorkshire to ..... Sydney Australia. The reason? "The more I thought about it” says Seb, “the more it seemed a good idea. I had some money saved, I told work I was leaving and before I knew it, I was setting off for Australia. No training, not a lot of planning but I felt confident. I’d pick it up as I went along. Mr Zealand has always wanted to travel and he’s really looking forward to experiencing different cultures, eating new foods and meeting new people. Why Children on the Edge? “I chose Children on the Edge because I wanted to do something for less privileged children. My childhood was filled with an abundance of opportunities and lots of happy memories and I just felt that now it was about time I gave something back. That way I could travel the world but also try to benefit someone else as well. There were plenty of children's charities to chose from but the bit on your website about returning childhoods to children really caught my eye. " The route? (You might need a cuppa and a map to plot this out). Seb lays it out like this: "The plan is to cycle from my home in Yorkshire, down to London and then on to Dover. Then it’s a three month trip across Europe, crossing France, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Austria, going down the coast through Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania. Finally I will cross Macedonia and Bulgaria before arriving in Turkey. Following the Black sea coast line I will travel through Turkey continuing on into Georgia and Azerbaijan. Then it is a trip across the Caspian Sea and into Kazakhstan following that I travel through Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan finally arriving in China. From China I travel through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia before finishing the Asian leg of my trip in Singapore. From there I fly to Perth in Australia and finish my trip by cycling the coastal road all the way to Sydney. If all goes to plan it is a journey that will take me through 24 countries, 3 continents and 15,000 miles of road." Onto the adventure.... By last week Seb has already made it to Budapest and travelled a stupendous 2,154 miles. His sister Victoria is heading out to meet him for his birthday this weekend and will be bringing us some more news, but in the meantime you can follow Seb’s adventure by going to his blog and you can sponsor him through is Justgiving page. We’d like to say a hearty Happy Birthday to Sebastian and a huge thank you for choosing us to raise money for through this unforgettable adventure. Watch this space for more crazy bike guy updates! ![]() Would you fancy running across all terrains with no shoes on? Not many people are likely to try it, but our Head of UK, Ben Wilkes is all set for a the challenge when he runs barefoot in this year’s Chichester Half Marathon on October 13th. Here at Children on the Edge we are organising the Chichester Half in conjunction with Chichester District Council. The event is in its second year after a highly successful revival last October. Entrants for this year’s race have been pouring in since registration opened in April. As far as we know, Ben is the only entrant running barefoot, but he’d like to see that change: “Running barefoot ‘style’ has helped me run quicker and without my old injuries flaring up” Ben explains. “The minimalist shoes out there are good, but the real exhilarating experience is when you take them off and just run. Will I be the first person to run the Chi half barefoot? I hope not. I hope on Oct 13th there are a few of us lining up and if that happens, I’m sure I wont be the first one to finish!”. Barefoot or ‘natural’ running is a rarity, however it did became more prominent over 50 years ago when Ethiopian Abebe Bikila won the 1960 Olympic marathon in Rome, with no shoes on, after realising that the Olympic shoe supplier had run out of shoes in his size! A few years later British Bruce Tulloh won the European gold medal and most famous was Zola Budd who raced and trained barefoot with a good degree of success in the 80s. More recently barefoot running has been on the rise with the production of thin-soled shoes or ‘Five Fingers’ for ‘minimalist running’ and with the popularity of Christopher McDougall’s bestseller ‘Born to run’ which promotes the benefits of ditching your running shoes and going back to how you are naturally made to run. Ben has received so much interest in this running method that he’s started a blog about his training progress. “I think Running barefoot round Chichester has lowered people’s gaze rather than raised eyebrows. As soon as they see me coming and realise I’m not wearing shoes, their eyes seem to fix on my feet. When chatting to people about barefoot running, the same questions often come up. The most common is ‘what about all the dog poo and broken glass?’. My response: I step over it when wearing shoes and running barefoot doesn’t change that!” You can follow Ben’s blog at www.chihalf.co.uk/barefoot-blog but more importantly, you can still sign up for the Chichester Half (you don’t have to run it barefoot!). Simply go to www.chihalf.co.uk. It’s a beautiful route which includes a mixture of road, cross country and cycle path terrain and the event raises vital funds for all our projects, which work to restore the ingredients of a full childhood to some of the world’s most forgotten children. ![]() Josh Rudd is a sixth form student (currently in year 12 in Powell House) at Eastbourne College. We were delighted to hear from him a few months back, saying he was about to run a few races and wanted to use them as an opportunity to raise money for our work. "My ambition is to work with others, support others who are less fortunate than me or need support and to run on behalf of charities” says Josh. “I run for Sussex at the moment and also for Seaford Striders ... but running for a charity is more important than running for medals and positions." Josh describes the various challenges he has undertaken for us: "This weekend has been exhausting but it has been a great experience. Firstly, I did the 3,000 metres on Saturday in Crawley at the K2 and that proved exhausting, but ended in a good result and also a good experience”. “The main event was the half marathon though, and it proved a tough course, however by taking on board the wise words of Mr Lowden regarding the hills, I managed to come 41st out of 729 participants and my prediction of 1 hour 40 minutes was correct! Moreover, last minute sponsors are now coming in”. Josh also sends his congratulations to a few other boys like Toby Marriott and Jonny Robinson who also finished with good times. Josh says “I am very happy at raising money for Children on the Edge and would be delighted to run on behalf of them again in the future." Josh has raised over £320 for us and is still adding to that total as he runs more races. We are always looking for people to raise money for our work and have as much fun while doing it as possible. If you’d like some ideas then just get in touch, or if you’re planning a fundraiser we’d love to hear all about it! ![]() Children from Dorset House school recently raised over £2,000 by venturing out on two South Downs walks! Starting at Whiteways, the entire school took part, followed clues and enjoyed a delicious picnic. The older children walked about over seven miles whilst the younger ones took a shorter route. Lots of fun was had by all, (despite a few staff losing their bearings!) with children of all ages having the chance to spot insects and butterflies, and identify leaves along the way. Dorset House School have been faithfully supporting our work for many years now, and pupils here are regularly kept up to date with all of our projects around the world through regular assemblies and presentations. We are hugely grateful for the difference they continue to make in children's lives. If you think your school could fundraise for our work and your pupils would benefit from finding out more about our work, then please do get in touch. |
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