In 2010, the Grey High School Student Christian Association (SCA) organized its first Laps for Hope charity relay marathon to raise funds for a local charity.
The biannual event involves groups of SCA members running in teams around a circuit on the school campus for a continuous 24 hour period.
Each running session is 30 minutes, during which time the boys can cover anything between 2 and 10 km. Each runner runs a minimum of 4 sessions and is able to complete a marathon distance if he puts his mind and body to it.
“The boys run through the night, through rain, wind and thunderstorms, at all times keeping their minds focused on the goal of raising money, since they are sponsored either per lap completed or a set amount for the event.”
106 exhausted young men of Grey High School have just completed the 2016 Laps for Hope relay marathon (11th to 12th March 2016) .
They ran a total of (at least) 2255 laps, which amounts to 1804 kilometres, over the 24 hour period.
They have gathered pledges of more than R20 000 which will be collected over the next few weeks.
The beneficiary this year is a project spearheaded by the Students Representative Council (SRC) of the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), known as “Enabling Dreams”.
The purpose of the project is to provide food, clothing and textbooks to students who arrive at the university with a good matric and sponsorship for tuition and accommodation, but with no funds to support themselves in any other way.
“Our boys were joined by the executive members of the SRC at the end of the relay, where they ran together before the SRC president shared his thanks and appreciation for the commitment and determination of these great young South African men.”
The NMMU SRC has shown amazing compassion and responsibility in doing all they can (including providing money from their own pockets) to care for and cater for these deserving and needy fellow students.