Charity Coordinator: Liz Atkinson
Our charity for 2023 is understanding dementia. Details of what you can do to donate & help can be viewed on our Charity Page
Further details about the charity can be found on their official website www.understandingdementia.co.uk.
I’m pleased to announce the official charity we will be representing this year is 1st Charvil Scouts Group
Charity Coordinator Vroni would like to thank all who nominated them
Further details on our charity page here.
Message from our Charity Coordinator Rachel Helsby charity@readingroadrunners.org
Charity of the Year – Parenting Special Children
I am feel honoured and privileged that members have voted for me to be the charity organiser of the year to raise money for local charity Parenting Special Children (PSC) which supports over 2,500 Berkshire families last year.
Parenting Special Children was set up by Ruth Pearce, Founder and Chief Executive in 2006 and its mission is to provide specialist parenting support to parents and carers of children and young people with Special Needs, so that they can create positive change in their lives.
The charity offers specialist parenting support to families of children and young people with Special needs and/or disability in Berkshire. From Autism, ADHD, trauma and attachment, to sleep and diagnosis support they offer a wide range of services. They also run a number of family events each year so that these families can have the sort of every days-out that other families would do routinely.
PSC also helps these families feel less isolated by running a number of support groups. For example they have a group for family members who are caring for children who cannot be cared for by their birth parents and, more recently, they have set up a dads and male carers support group which is proving very popular. It is always good to talk.
We will shortly be setting up the charity page on our Reading Roadrunners website, and also a direct fundraising page for members who wish to raise money for the charity directly. Money raised through Reading Road Runners will go towards funding PSC’s sleep service. Children with additional needs are at increased risk of sleep difficulties and, as a results, parents/carers and siblings also don’t get enough sleep a key element of well-being.
I hope you will get an opportunity to learn more about the charity and the variety of work it does through meeting the volunteers at club events throughout the year. In the meantime, you can find out more about the charity by visiting their website:
https://www.parentingspecialchildren.co.uk
RR Charity page is also here https://readingroadrunners.org/charity/
As your charity organiser, I am committed to giving as much time as I can to the role and, as a very local charity, PSC volunteers are also ready to help me. I am very open to constructive ideas from members about how I can do my role and welcome advice from those that gone before me. Please do not hesitate to come and talk to me at track on a Wednesday evening.
By raising the visibility of this charity and the work it does, I also I hope I will also encourage us all to think a little more about people that act a bit differently to the norm. To stop and think. To show a bit more compassion. And be kind. Because God knows right now the world needs a bit more of that.
Rachel Helsby
Dinner Dance & Roadrunners Charity Donation
Our club held it’s annual Dinner Dance on Sunday 8th March. Anne Goodhall who arranged the event commented ‘It went like a dream’. Our runners are normally used to pounding the track, roads & trail but last night many could be seen strutting their stuff on the Dance Floor. Awards and thanks were handed out to runners, volunteers & committee members.
One of the highlights of the evening was our Chairman Phil Reay handing our 2019 club charity First Days Children’s Charity a cheque for over £10,000 raised by our club with the help of our charity coordinator Zoë Browne.
Reading Roadrunners are proud to have picked First Days Children’s Charity as their chosen charity of 2019.
It’s a local charity providing much needed essentials to children & families living in poverty. Below is a clip from their website.
At First Days we believe all children deserve the same start in life.
We provide everyday essentials to families who are living in poverty across Berkshire (and further afield) by distributing clothes, toiletries, school uniforms, equipment, furniture, toys and books.
Roadrunner Zoe Browne will be representing them at our club and first port will be Reading Half Marathon on Sunday.
We wish Zoe, Annette and her team all the best for 2019 and hopefully they can raise shed loads of much needed cash & supplies during the next 12 months.
More details available on our Charity page.
Our club received this thank you letter from No5 Charity recently. Well done to Kerry and all involved in raising the money this year.
RR-thankyou19