Our club’s annual Brass Monkey half marathon has been a great success for over 30 years. The race is our way of giving back to the sport we love. This year we have been able to give to Africa too.
Over many years the race accumulated a bulk of unused t-shirts. These were gathering dust in our store cupboards, so our Committee agreed they should go to a better home.
One of our club members, Liz Piper, had connections with the charity Links International. The charity’s aim is to inspire, empower and train communities to break free from poverty. Inspiring, empowering and training felt like a good match for our club.
Liz and Links were able to organise the shipping of 600 Brass Monkey t-shirts to more needy homes in Ghana and Malawi. Liz herself was able to deliver some of the t-shirts to a local football club near Accra, the capital of Ghana.
“They were so pleased to get them”, said Liz. “I’m sure they will be well looked after. After the photo the guys took them off and carefully folded them back into their plastic bags”.
The Brass Monkey has been bringing joy to many runners for many years. It’s great that a little bit of that joy can now be felt 7,000 miles away in Africa. Well done Harriers!
