Henry Cock, the owner of 86 Public, knew his waiters were struggling without their tips, so he decided to run an ultramarathon in his passage to raise money for them.
Johannesburg, South Africa (20 April 2020) – Waiters across South Africa have lost a vast bulk of income due to the lockdown. Relying on tips to carry their salaries, the closure of all restaurants has left all waiters short!
Henry Cock, the owner of 86 Public, knew his staff would be struggling and decided to do something to help them. He live-streamed himself doing an ultramarathon run, around 90kms, in his passage. The passage is only 15 metres. This means he did about 6000 laps of his passage to make up the distance of a 90km run.
Along with his live-stream, Henry directed people to his BackaBuddy crowdfund so he could reach his goal of raising R50,000 for his staff.
“He took a few 30min breaks to charge his iWatch or phone that he was using to record the distance, and to fuel his body with baby potatoes, pasta, drank some red bulls and energade! He also took a couple of dips in the pool (ice bath!)”
“Henry live-streamed parts of the run on Instagram and Facebook, giving a rundown of how he was feeling and thanking people for their messages of support and all the kind donations that were streaming in!
It was incredible to see the support from restaurant-goers backing the brand, sending messages for the staff, and to see Henry’s family and friends root for him from all corners of the world!
Donations started from as little as R100 with some people donating over R7,000!”
The goal of R50,000 was quickly hit and surpassed. Now just four days later, they have raised R100,000.00. This money will be divided out between the waiters and will help fund and feed their families.
“Something made us look up the distance of the comrades marathon and we came across this “The spirit of the Comrades Marathon is said to be embodied by attributes of camaraderie, selflessness, dedication, perseverance, and ubuntu.” This perfectly embodies what Henry did on 16 April for his staff, as well as the formidable kindness of all those that supported and donated!
The donations will surely go a long way to helping some 20 families during this difficult time!” – Robyn Horwitz
You can see his crowdfund here.
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