4,000 children to run in Shrewsbury to raise £100,000

Around 4,000 children from some 20 schools in and around Shrewsbury will take part in the Great Shrewsbury Run on Friday 9 October.

The combined effort by schools, hopes to hit the £100,000 target – needed to ‘kick-start’ major fund raising for a new indoor Riding for the Disabled centre in Much Wenlock, Shropshire; the Cavalier Centre.

School children from participating schools, will join the host school of Prestfelde, London Road – to run together in staggered groups, from 11am – 2pm.

Prestfelde will kindly be providing school minibuses, to deliver children to the Prestfelde games pitches – to be part of the action! Other children will be running during the day, at their individual schools. The aim is for each child to run/jog/walk, as far as they possibly can in their hour of activity – and these distances will be totalled together, to work towards the end goal of 25,000 miles.

The Great Shrewsbury Run is part of the K12 Challenge – Kids with 12 months to complete their challenge. The idea was founded on 100 groups of children each raising £1,000 in twelve months, to reach the total of £100,000; so far just under £70,000 has been raised. This money has all been gathered by individuals or groups of children taking on sporting challenges. One thirteen year old boy cycled 142 miles in one day and raised £2,184 for example; a collective amount was raised by a tennis tournament this summer – £6,904. All of these have added together during 2015 – and the aim is for the Great Shrewsbury Run to help to reach the final target. This money will be the start of a major fund-raising campaign to raise up to £2million, to develop the new centre.

Selina Graham, who has been leading the campaign commented: “We have been so impressed by both individual and group efforts by Shropshire children, to help others less fortunate than themselves. This combined activity on 9 October, shows how schools across Shrewsbury can work together to have fun, keep active and raise money – all at the same time! A thank you to Prestfelde School for inviting us to use their grounds, so that we can have a central place, where children from each school can run together.”