Every year ten thousand plus runners gather at the starting line in their all-colour club running kits from all over the country (and the world), but its their other adornments that makes watching the Comrades Marathon so interesting. The headgear, flags, banners, arm bands and other interesting ‘add-on’s’ that show each individuals character and most often, support for a particular cause, are what grab the attention of the thousands of supporters. This year the Wildlands Conservation Trust, one of the five official charities of the Comrades Marathon launched its ‘1000 runner’ campaign aimed to get at least a thousand runners wearing something green at Comrades to raise awareness of conservation and climate change in South Africa.
“We launched our 1 000 runner campaign with the idea that a 1 000 runners will be wearing our green ‘Releaf Campaign’ conservation awareness shirts at the Comrades Expo and our green arm band and shoelaces on the day” said campaign manager Heidi Mocke. “Runners who participated signed up by donating a minimum of R10 to the Trust, they also had to fill in a fun conservation questionnaire in order to receive their green goodies”, she said. On top of the 1000 awareness runners, the campaign was supported by 30 ‘green champions’ who raised in excess of R200 each, either individually or through their network of friends and business associates, to run for the Trust. The campaign raised just over R30 000 which will go towards the organisations Indigenous Trees for Life programme.
The Indigenous Trees for Life programme is using indigenous trees grown by orphaned and vulnerable children, ‘tree-preneurs’, to reforest degraded land and green their communities, helping to offset the carbon emitted by industry, and all of us. The donations (matched by campaign sponsor Bonitas Medical Fund) will contribute towards the planting of these indigenous trees and is a small but vital step towards the mitigation of climate change. The ‘1000-runners’ who participated have also contributed to helping the tree-preneurs to support themselves and their families and teach them the importance of conservation.
“Apart from raising funds it was amazing to see how many people are realising the importance of conserving our natural heritage”, said Mocke. “So many people came to speak to me about what they are doing in their local communities to help; things like organising local schools to initiate garbage collections and recycling, and even making art out of rubbish.” “It was moving to hear people speak with so much passion and it once again reminded me just how important the work we are doing really is” she said. More and more people are becoming aware of their environment and taking the initiative to do what they can to protect it, and it’s events like the Comrades Marathon that are helping to spread this ethic. “Most runners I spoke to mentioned how important it’s becoming for them to recycle and how conscious they are nowadays of litter because of the places they run in. Who wants to run on a polluted route anyway? It was great to see so many people talking about conservation and having fun filling out our questionnaires. Thanks to the Comrades Marathon Association, we have this great opportunity to spread our message and reach thousands of people!” said Mocke.
Wildlands CEO, Dr Andrew Venter reiterated the importance of the great event and its organising body: “The Comrades Marathon Association is a very important partner of the Trusts and our ten year association has made an invaluable contribution to conservation in the province. It is a great organisation and Comrades is a wonderful event that really captures the spirit of humanity and giving. We have raised around half a million Rand for the Trust over last ten years through the event but more importantly we’ve been able to spread a green message to thousands and thousands of people each year” said Venter. “This is the second year the Bonitas Medical Fund have sponsored this campaign and they continue to show amazing commitment to our Indigenous Trees for Life programme.”
If you’d like to ‘go green’ for next year’s comrades marathon contact Heidi Mocke on 033 343 6380.
WILDTRUST (registered as the Wildlands Conservation Trust - IT No: 4329/1991/PMB)